National jobless rate ticks up to 9.6%

54,000 jobs were dropped from the Nonfarm payroll in August, and the national unemployment rate clicked up to 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Here’s how we stack up in Ohio and the Mahoning Valley:

Bart van Ark, Chief Economist of The Conference Board on today’s Jobs Report said, “The modest job gains during the past few months not only reflect the response to slow output growth, but also a lack of confidence going forward. While the snail-pace creation of jobs over the past months might seem similar to recent post-recession periods, it is in fact much different. The economy as a whole has been weakened by a dismal housing market and slow consumption growth, which especially hamper small and medium- sized enterprises. Modest gains in private sector jobs, coupled with the large decline in government employment, are consistent with our forecast for continued sluggish growth”

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