Noel Brinkley

Noel
Brinkley

Employers cut more jobs from their payrolls in September and
the unemployment rate hit another 26-year high, as the long-battered U.S. labor
market took an unexpected turn for the worse, according to a government report
Friday.

The Labor Department said there was a net loss of 263,000 jobs
in the month, up from a revised loss of 201,000 jobs in August. Economists
surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast losses would fall to 175,000 jobs.

This is only the second time this year that job losses rose from the
previous month, as the labor market had shown slow but relatively steady
improvement since a loss of 741,000 jobs in January.

September marked
the 21st consecutive month that the number of workers on payrolls has shrunk, a
period during which 7.2 million jobs have been lost.

Even though many
economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, have said there are signs
that the economy is growing once again, Friday's jobs report shows that job
losses could continue well into the recovery, limiting the strength of any
economic turnaround.

"This report is dismal and disappointing," said
Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at Cal State University Channel Islands. "The
'green shoots' in the economy are withering. Technically, the economy may have
bottomed, but the job market is lagging behind and struggling."

U.S.
stocks fell in early trading following the report and closed the day slightly
lower.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.8% in September from 9.7% in
August. That was in line with economists' forecasts, but the unemployment rate
is now the highest since June 1983.