Unemployment dips to 9 percent, but public-sector cuts drag down overall job growth

There were some positive signs. The Labor Department revised upward its earlier estimates of August and September job creation by a combined 102,000 jobs. And the ratio of people with jobs to the overall population ticked up one-tenth of a percentage point, to 58.4 percent. Average hourly earnings rose to $19.53 an hour from $19.50, and an additional 277,000 people reported themselves as having a job. Ninety-five thousand fewer people described themselves as jobless and looking for work.

And a broader measure of joblessness, which also includes those who have given up looking for work out of frustration and those who have part-time jobs but want to work full time, fell to 16.2 percent in October, from 16.5 percent.

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A brief history of U.S. unemployment.

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But over the past three months, job creation has averaged 114,000 a month, close to the 125,000 positions needed each month to keep up with an ever-growing labor force.

Shortly after the jobs report was released, House Republicans seized on the opportunity to call on Senate Democrats to pass the stalled House jobs bill.

“Today’s report underscores the need for immediate action on the more than 15 bipartisan, common-sense House-passed jobs bills that are piled up at Senate Democrats’ door,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “Senate Democrats are out of excuses and the president must call on them to act.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) urged Republicans and Democrats to “set aside our differences and focus on areas of common ground to create jobs.”

“We are a country that is built on the promise of opportunity and success for all,” Cantor said, “but right now the uncertainty created by Washington overreach and overregulation is costing jobs and crippling growth.”

Speaking at a news conference in Cannes, France, while attending the Group of 20 summit, President Obama said, “I’m worried about putting people back to work, because people are hurting and the U.S. economy is underperforming.” The nation must make sure that workers “get the skills and training they need to compete in a global economy,” he added, repeating his call for Republicans to support his $447 billion American Jobs Act.

“When they look at today’s jobs numbers,” Obama said, “that were positive but indicated once again that the economy is doing poorly, they need to think twice about saying ‘no’ again” to a jobs bill that economists say “is the only one out there that will make a dent” in the U.S. economy.

The Obama administration argued for a jobs plan that would funnel money to state governments to help them avoid more job cuts, but that idea faces strong resistance from members of Congress, including some Democrats, who see it as objectionable for the federal government to in effect bail out state and local governments.

Staff writer Ariana Eujung Cha contributed to this report.