The Labor Department reported Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate continues to climb, hitting a 26-year high of 9.7 percent last month. It was sobering news as the country prepares for Labor Day, the annual holiday celebrating American workers.

The department’s monthly snapshot of the job market showed the jobless rate had risen from July’s 9.4 percent. U.S. employers also shed 216,000 jobs last month, slightly less than the 230,000 that analysts had predicted. However, the government also revised job losses for June and July, showing 49,000 more jobs lost than previously reported.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the country has lost 6.9 million jobs, according to government reports, but the rate of job losses has slowed in many major industrial sectors. The one bright spot continues to be the health care sector, which is still adding jobs. Health care has grown by 544,000 jobs since the start of the recession, including 28,000 jobs last month. Construction employment, by contrast, lost 65,000 jobs in August and manufacturing employment declined by 63,000.

Over-55 jobless rate steady

The report did contain some good news for older workers, whose unemployment rate was 6.8 percent last month, virtually unchanged from July. The data show that there were 27.2 million workers age 55 and over who were working last month, about the same as a year ago.

Older women continued to hold onto more of their jobs than older men, according to Emy Sok, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among older men, the unemployment rate was 7.5 percent; for women 55 and over it was 6.7 percent. This difference in unemployment rates between the genders also held true for younger workers ages 25 to 54.

“The unemployment rate for men overall is higher than for women. It’s why some characterize this recession as really a ‘man-cession.’ They’ve been hit the hardest,” says Sok.

The government report also shows that “older workers and younger workers have had different experiences in this recession,” says Andrew Eschtruth, communications director at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “It’s been hard on everyone, but it’s been easier for older workers to hold onto their jobs than younger workers,” he says.

For example, younger men have suffered a 5.9 percentage point drop in their employment-to-population ratio (the proportion of their age group that is employed), while for older men it has been only a 1.3 percentage point drop.

More older women employed

The news is even better for older women, Eschtruth notes. “Slightly more older women are employed now, by 0.3 percent, than at the beginning of the recession in late 2007.”

The Labor Department news underscores the frustration many unemployed workers feel as they fruitlessly search for jobs. The report shows the number of discouraged workers in August (758,000) has nearly doubled over the past 12 months. These are people not currently looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available for them.

The number of those in August working part time for economic reasons—their hours had been cut or they were unable to find a full-time job—held steady at 9.1 million, virtually unchanged since March, but 54 percent higher than a year ago.

For those with full-time jobs, the average work week was unchanged at 33.1 hours, the report noted.

Candy Sagon is a writer with the AARP Bulletin.