It's the underemployment too

Gallup has new numbers on unemployment and underemployment.

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 10.1% in September -- up sharply from 9.3% in August and 8.9% in July. Much of this increase came during the second half of the month -- the unemployment rate was 9.4% in mid-September -- and therefore is unlikely to be picked up in the government's unemployment report on Friday.

Underemployment -- the percentage of people working part-time but wanting full-time work -- shows a more modest increase to 18.8% in September from 18.6% in August, though it is up from 18.4% in July. Underemployment peaked at 20.4% in April and has yet to fall below 18.3% this year.

Some explanation from Annie Lowrey at The Washington Independent:

The broad unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in September, but the U-6 rate, a broader measure of unemployment and underemployment, jumped to 17.1 percent. That is the highest rate since April, and only 0.3 percentage points off of the 2009 high of 17.4 percent. The U-6 measure counts unemployed workers, people working part-time who want to work full-time, and discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job but still want one. And the change in the rate is due to a huge increase in workers with part-time jobs who want full-time jobs. From August to September, that number climbed from 8.73 million to 9.34 million. A year ago, it was 8.13 million.