Unemployment hits 9.7%

And employers eliminated 216,000 jobs in August. Both numbers generally fall within the econsensus of estimates by economists, though economist Mark Zandi has a better way to sum things up: "The job market is in for a slog." From the NYT:

Signs of weakness filled the report. Overtime hours were unchanged from a month earlier, and the length of the workweek was flat. Temporary employment services, among the first to hire after a recession, cut 6,500 jobs. And the rate of manufacturing job losses increased from a month earlier.