US Economy Still Stuck in the Mud - shocker

According to the Labor Department, the USA has lost an additional 95,000 jobs in September alone. As you can see by the graph, there were actually 159,000 government jobs lost, however, there were 64,000 jobs created by businesses. A big chunk of those 159,000 jobs were 77,000 temporary census jobs, which was not too shocking. There were, however, a record number of jobs lost at a state and local level, with September's numbers reaching 83,000 job cuts, the worst decline since 1982 (58,000 of those cuts were TEACHERS/other education workers).

The underemployment rate, which includes both discouraged people without jobs and those who work part time but want a full-time position, went from 16.7% in August to 17.1% this September. With that said, 1 in 6 adults are without the job they want or need.

Unemployment rate, which measures solely people who are actively searching for work, remained the same at 9.6%.

So is the economy still stuck in the mud??

Most economists argue yes, saying we have neither lost or gained improvement. The huge influx of government jobs in the spring accounted for the 564,000 temporary census jobs. There is, however, some tiny glimmer of hope. When you take census jobs completely out of the picture, September was the only month in 2010 that had a decline in jobs.

In my opinion, although there are a great deal of jobs within the government, it is not only up to them but also to the private business sector to help stimulate the economy. Currently, many businesses are still hiring temps, and although that is expected during the uncertain status of the economy, many economists argue that "it should have transitioned into permanent jobs by now."

We're in a pretty complicated mess. Its hard for government to create jobs when they already are completely broke, and yet at the same time its not easy for businesses to produce jobs at a time when their revenues are being slashed by the thousands, and in some cases millions.

So who's to blame? Congress? Big monopoly businesses? Oversea workers? Obama? Or simply everyone from the past 15 years involved in capitalism and government?