The slight rise in the national unemployment rate for September to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent in August does not show that happy days are here quite yet.

The country lost 263,000 jobs last month, which was more than the 180,000 that forecasters were expecting. September also marked the 21st month that the nation has suffered a net loss of jobs, longer than at any time since the Great Depression.

The unemployment rate last month was the highest it has been since June 1983, when it stood at 10.1 percent.

In fact, the situation has gotten so bad that people have given up on looking for work, which means they aren't officially recorded as unemployed anymore.

Of the 82.7 million people who are not working or even looking for work, 5.6 million of them want a job but have given up the search, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If they were included in the survey as unemployed, the unemployment rate would be 12.6 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that 16.1 percent of the labor force is either unemployed, marginally attached or working part-time because they can't find a full-time job.

The September figures showed that more than a third of unemployed workers have been so for more than six months. That's 5.5 million people who haven't had a job since March. More than half of all unemployed people in September -- 56 percent or 8.1 million people -- had been out of work for more than 15 weeks.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics in its report on job openings and labor turnover for July, the most recent available, noted that there were six job seekers for every available job.

Heidi Sherholz, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute, said it is no wonder the number of people who are not in the labor force increased by half a million people during the month.

"There are just not enough jobs to employ our workforce so people are getting stuck," she said. "Layoffs are way down but hiring is not picking up."

Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, noted in his own analysis on the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the bureau announced it had revised the employment numbers in March down by 824,000 jobs.

"Including this revision, the economy has lost over 8 million jobs in the downturn," he said.

The government considers the current recession to have begun in December 2007.

In its separate survey of employers, the government reported that 116,000 jobs were lost in the sector that produces goods and 147,000 were shed in the service sector. Large numbers of jobs were lost in construction (64,000), manufacturing (51,000) and government (53,000). State and local governments suffered combined losses of 47,000 jobs, as those governments, which are not allowed to run deficits, struggled with reduced tax revenues.

Economists saw some good news in the report. Fewer jobs were lost in September than had been earlier in the year when the economy was shedding more than 600,000 jobs a month.

David Huether, the chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, called the report a "yellow flag" on the economic recovery.

"Our economy remains fragile and could stall out or even shift into reverse if Congress and the administration enact policies that discourage investment, hamper flexibility and raise costs of doing business," he said. "Economic conditions are better now than they were at the beginning of the year, but remain weak and have not gained sufficient strength to convince employers to begin hiring again."

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