Unemployment Tops 10 Percent

By: Victoria McGrane November 6, 2009 08:40 AM EST

Democrats – headed into an historic health care vote this weekend — got smacked in the face with a 10.2 percent unemployment rate in October, the government reported Friday.

The jobless rate is well above the 9.9 percent that economists expected and breaks the psychological barrier of 10 percent, topping double digits for the first time in 26 years. It's the last headline the Obama administration wanted to see going into the House healthcare vote, and White House officials were already heading to the airwaves Friday morning to talk up the economy.

In all, employers shed 190,000 non-farm jobs last month.

The tough numbers arm House Republicans with fresh political ammo against the trillion-dollar House health care bill, which could come to a vote as early as Saturday. The GOP has been relentlessly pushing the narrative that Democrats are obsessed with creating ever-bigger government at the expense of the economy, and Democratic response to the bad employment news was thin on Friday morning while Republicans pounced.

“Democrats Job-Killing Agenda Must Cease,” declared a press release from Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.).

"As unemployment tops 10 percent this holiday season, Republicans have put jobs and the economy first, and are focused on developing real solutions that will put Americans back to work," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said. "Increasing taxes on small business, as Democrats will do to pay for government run health care, is the wrong approach."

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele slammed the Obama for pushing a “phony” message on economic recovery that GOP election wins Tuesday prove voters aren’t buying anyway.

“With so many families looking for work, it is time the Obama administration stop spreading their phony ‘saved or created' talking points and start creating the dependable jobs America needs,” Steele said in a statement. “President Obama promised jobs during his campaign for president, and the elections in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday were a clear referendum on his failure to deliver on this promise.”

Democrats are in a defensive crouch on the unemployment figures, and still blame Republicans for blocking critical economic measures.

“These are crocodile tears from politicians who had to be dragged kicking and screaming just to extend unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed,” Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told POLITICO, referring to Senate Republicans’ repeated objections to passing legislation extending jobless benefits. “Only Washington Republicans would argue that the way to create jobs is to allow insurance companies to fix prices and deny insurance to sick people.”

Even though it was higher than expected, the upward trend in unemployment comes as no surprise to economists and administration officials alike. Nonetheless, the increase is an uncomfortable reminder for the Obama administration that they’re facing a long string of bad headlines on the economy, despite other evidence that the economy is shaking off the recession.

Anticipating the numbers heading upward, the White House had scheduled Obama to sign legislation extending jobless benefits Friday – a bill Congress cleared just under the wire Thursday and which would also expand and extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit.

The signing ceremony was to be closed to the press, but the president is now expected to appear on camera in late morning.

Obama aides nevertheless were dismayed by the worse-than-expected figure. The White House activated a plan calling for the president’s economic advisers to hit the cable channels at 9:30 a.m. A written presidential statement is also planned.

Congressional Democrats also seemed caught flat-footed, lagging well behind their Republican critics in responding to the exceptionally bad jobs numbers. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the joint economic committee, beat out leadership in both chambers, sending out a statement at 9:14 a.m.

“Today’s unemployment report puts a harsh number on the suffering felt by Americans nationwide. While the economy has shown signs of life in recent weeks – durable goods orders are rising and initial unemployment claims are at their lowest point in nearly a year – the problem of joblessness is still pervasive; and it will not be solved overnight,” she said.

There’s wide consensus that the jobless rate hovers above10 percent before it starts to head back down, and it could remain above that figure well into 2010. Hiring typically lags behind other signs of economic recovery in a recession, and this recession has seen deeper job cuts than previous recessions.

The unemployment figures are also sure to up the pressure on Democrats to take steps to boost job creation – all while being careful not to do anything large enough to earn the label of “stimulus,” which would suggest that the first one they did this year didn’t work.

Mike Allen contributed to this story.

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