August jobs report: No jobs added, 9.1% unemployment rate - Sep. 2, 2011: Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained at 9.1%.
"We expected a weak report, and what we got was even weaker," said Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at J.H. Cohn.
The report was partially helped by 22,000 state workers in Minnesota returning to work after a temporary government shutdown in July, but was also hurt by 45,000 Verizon workers on strike in August.
Adjusting for those events, the economy probably added more like 23,000 jobs in August -- still dismal compared with monthly gains of about 200,000 earlier this year.
Focusing on the one-time blips is like giving a skunk a dinner mint, O'Keefe said. "It's still a skunk and it still stinks."
Economists typically estimate the nation needs to add about 150,000 jobs each month to keep up with population growth alone. It needs even stronger growth to recover the 8.8 million jobs lost during the financial crisis.
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