UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES to 9.0 %

From the BLS.

The number of unemployed persons, at 13.7 million, changed little in April. The unemployment rate edged up from 8.8 to 9.0 percent over themonth but was 0.8 percentage point lower than in November. The labor force also was little changed in April. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.8 percent), adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (24.9 percent),whites (8.0 percent), blacks (16.1 percent), and Hispanics (11.8 percent) showed little change in April. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.4 percent,
not seasonally adjusted.

         [snip]

The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks increased by 242,000 in April. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for27 weeks and over) declined by 283,000 to 5.8 million; their share of unemployment declined to 43.4 percent.

The mighty Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com

What does this mean?  Well, adding 244K jobs is always good news, although it’s going to take years to make up the job losses at this rate as the National Journal notes; it will take 2.5 years to make up the raw numbers, and several years beyond that to make up the difference in population growth.  Furthermore, with growth settling down to 1.8%, it’s unlikely that the American economy will even keep its current pace of job creation.  A growth rate of 1.8% will lose jobs rather than create them, and we’re more likely to see the unemployment rate go up again.

Well since unemployment rate has gone up that means you gegt the photo of the depressed & drunk Stormtrooper.