I’ll say it again: no amount of government spending or even great staffing software is going to turn this unemployment situation around in the next few months.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its data for the month of August last Friday, and the numbers were flat. As in North Dakota flat (which is ironic, given that North Dakota is one of the few employment bright spots in the country). The bottom line, however, is the employment situation has not improved. Not even a little.

Here is numerical proof of flatness:

• 9.1% is the most common “unemployment rate” you’ll hear. Same as July’s unemployment rate.
• 14 million. The total number of unemployed people in August. Unchanged (or maybe even up a little bit)
• 6.5 million. People who want a job (or “are actively seeking work”) but can’t find one. Unchanged

And so on, and so on.

And then there’s bad numerical news:

• 85,000. That’s the revised number of jobs added in July, down from 117,000. June’s numbers were revised down to 20,000 from 46,000. That’s 58,000 fewer jobs, fewer employed people, fewer taxpayers than we previously thought.
• 8.8 million is the number of people in August who were working part-time but who wanted to be working full-time. That’s up from 8.4 million in July.
• 550,000 is the number of government jobs lost since September 2008.
• 12%. That’s California’s unemployment rate – one the highest in the nation coming from the most populous state in the nation.

Is there good news? Sort of:

• Flat is better than increased unemployment. I said that the past few months, and I’ll say it again. The situation could worse. Much worse. I don’t want 9% to be the new normal, but I’m thankful that the unemployment rate isn’t working its way back to 10% (or worse).
• Healthcare and mining continue to grow. Those two sectors have accounted for nearly 400,000 new jobs in the past 12 months.

President Obama is going to give a big speech on job creation TONIGHT, but I don’t expect much to come of it. The parties are just too far apart ideologically and I can’t see the Republican controlled House going along with a $300 Billion jobs spending bill. The private sector NEEDS to make an employment jobs recovery happen on its own, and that’s probably how it should be, BUT that is very dependant upon increased DEMAND for their products and services in the U.S. and globally.

Thankfully, everyone in the contingent staffing industry is putting their staffing resources to good use, maximizing employment even in a tough economy. Without their work, these numbers would be much, much worse.