Decreased jobs and hours push economy back to 1997 hours level

The benchmark revisions will show job loss was 824,000 larger than originally reported. The loss of 263,000 payroll jobs, coupled with a 0.1 hour decline in the average workweek, pushed the index of aggregate hours to 98.5, slightly below the 98.6 level in December of 1998. Hours worked have now declined by 8.6 percent from the pre-recession peak. In the 1981-82 recession the decline from peak to trough was 5.8 percent. The loss of jobs also pushed the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent. The unemployment rate for men hit 10.3 percent, surpassing the 10.1 percent peak in the 1981-82 recession. The accelerated pace of job loss was driven primarily by the government, retail, and educational services sectors. The government sector lost 53,000 jobs in September, compared with a loss of 19,000 jobs in August. Most of the job loss was again at the state and local level, which together accounted for 47,000 of the lost jobs. The private educational services sector, which had been adding jobs through the recession, lost 16,900 jobs in September. These job losses, like the state and local cutbacks, are largely the result of budget shortfalls since much of the funding for these services comes from the public sector. Retail trade lost 38,500 jobs in September after losing just 8,800 in August. The biggest difference here was in the auto sector–7,100 jobs lost, after having added 3,500 in August to meet demand from the Cash for Clunkers program.