Susan Bredeken, right, talks with Wendy Morisi about employment opportunities at a U.S. army job fair Thursday, in Romulus, Mich. (Paul Sancya/Associated Press) U.S. unemployment hit a 26-year high in August as 216,000 Americans were added to the unemployment rolls, according to figures released Friday.

The U.S. jobless rate inched up to 9.7 per cent in August, a rise of three-tenths of a percentage point from July's 9.4 per cent, the U.S. Department of Labour reported Friday.

That meant that August's unemployment was at its highest level since June 1983, when more than 10 per cent of Americans who wanted to work could not find employment.

Recession woes

The U.S. economy has been hammered by the global economic slowdown in recent months.

Since the summer of 2008, American property values have plunged, destroying individual net worth and killing consumer spending. In addition, the curtailment of activity in international lending market left U.S. firms without available cash to fund operations while waiting for the return of buyers.

The U.S. unemployment rate in August was the worst in 26 years. (Jae C. Hong/ Associated Press)

These events conspired to put 14.9 million U.S. workers on the unemployment rolls by August, the largest number of Americans unemployed since 1948, the earliest public records at the Department of Labour.

Still some improvement

Despite the employment losses, the U.S. civilian workforce expanded in August, at 154.6 million people, an increase of 73,000 men and women seeking jobs.

Often, economists point to a rising workforce as sign of economic optimism, although using such data as evidence of a recovery in the midst of the worst recession in decades might be considered a stretch.

"The job losses are slowing in typical lagged fashion as the economy emerges from recession. But they remain large, and joblessness continues to mount, which can only make it harder for households to repay debt and rebuild savings, thereby impeding a consumer-led recovery," said Bank of Montreal economist Sal Guatieri in a morning note on the U.S. figures.

As an example, analysts viewed the August number of U.S. jobs as positive since the employment losses were about 9,000 fewer than expected.

Still, economists only missed their job loss forecast by a marginal four per cent, an indication that the U.S. upside surprise in the jobs picture was not that great.

In addition, American manufacturers, which employ about 12 million people, cut another 63,000 jobs in August compared to July. The goods-producing sector in the United States, similarly to other industrialized countries, has been losing jobs for years.

In fact, U.S. manufacturing industries have chopped 5.5 million jobs, or more than 30 per cent of their workforces, since the decade began.