US economy adds 151,000 jobs in October

WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate in the United States may not have fallen substantially in 2010, but a US Labor Department report has given President Barack Obama some cheer by revealing that 151,000 jobs were added to the American economy in the month of October.

According to the New York Times (NYT), nearly 15 million people are still out of work, and the unemployment rate in the United States remains stubbornly high at 9.6 percent.

Even if the American economy suddenly expands and starts adding 208,000 jobs a month, according to the NYT, it would still take 12 years to close the gap between the growing number of American workers and the total available jobs, according to the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project.

The latest numbers underscore the challenges that lie ahead for Washington with a newly divided government and calls by Republican leadership to discredit Obama’s economic policies.

The Federal Reserve’s decision this week to pump more money into the economy - seem to be upsetting the rest of world. One effect of the Fed’s actions is to drive the dollar lower against other currencies, making American products more competitive and perhaps laying the groundwork for asset bubbles elsewhere.

President Obama hopes to use his Asia trip to highlight the need for creating more jobs in America.

“The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States of America,” Obama told his cabinet Thursday.

He acknowledged that the jobs report was encouraging. (ANI)