Total government job hires decreased by 13,000 to 262,000, and state and local governments hires decreased by 14,000 to 233,000, meaning that the drag on hiring from government is being driven at the state and local level.

The total job opening rate increased from 2.3 to 2.5 percent (meaning 2.5 percent of existing jobs in the U.S. economy were unfilled at the end of September), which is the highest it’s been since August 2008. The total hires rate increased from 3.1 to 3.2 percent.

However, the rate of state and local government hires decreased from 1.3 to 1.2, even as the job opening rate increased from 1.5 to 1.6.

BLS currently estimates that the number of people employed increased by 158,000 in September, and by 80,000 in October.

Layoffs and firings increased by 69,000 to 1.76 million total in September. Both the private sector and government increased their layoffs and discharges, with private sector layoffs and discharges increasing by 55,000 and government layoffs and discharges increasing by 14,000.

Voluntary quits also rose in September, increasing by 42,000 to 2.05 million total. But the increase was driven by the private sector, where voluntary quits increased by 44,000, and voluntary quits from government jobs decreased by 2,000.

For a better perspective on where the job openings and hires numbers have progressed since the start of the recession, here’s a graph of total and government (federal, state and local) job opening rates since 2007, which shows that total job openings have increased slightly in the past year but haven’t returned to what they were before the recession, even as government job openings have stagnated.

And here’s a graph of total and government hires since 2007, which shows that both total hires and government hires have remained relatively steady.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that “each mass layoff involved at least 50 workers from a single employer.” Florida, with 78 mass layoffs (not seasonally adjusted), came in second. California was first with 251, and New York third with 71. The good news is that the number of mass layoffs in Florida during August dropped well below June and July levels.

At the national level, employers took 1,587 seasonally adjusted mass layoff actions, involving more than 165,000 workers.

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that Florida was among the four states with the largest over-the-month increase in employment during August.

The release added that “the largest over-the-month increase in employment occurred in Minnesota (+28,400), followed by North Carolina (+16,500), Arizona (+15,400), and Florida (+9,900).”

A report on the “State of Working Florida 2011″ issued by the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (aka RISEP) at Florida International University on Labor Day states that “more than two years after the official end of the recession, the path to recovery is not yet clear in Florida or the nation.”

According to the RISEP report, “in the last six months unemployment has come down to 10.7% and 64,300 jobs have been added,” but job growth has been “concentrated in a few industries, particularly Health Care and Social Assistance, Accommodation and Food Services, and Administrative and Waste services. In July the state lost 22,000 jobs, mostly due to losses in local government including public schools.”

From the report:

While higher educated workers in higher paying jobs appear to be doing fairly well and even gaining ground in wages, lower educated workers, African American workers, and young workers, are still facing extremely high unemployment rates and wage decreases. As many economists and advocates have noted recently, this crisis continues absent meaningful action at the federal level to create jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics updates come just weeks after the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 46.2 million people live in poverty in the U.S., the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

The Colorado Springs, Colo.-based, group, which James Dobson founded in 1977, is projected to end the 2011 fiscal year, on Sept. 30, with a $105 million budget; however, Focus only brought in $90 million to $95 million in donations this year. The organization is responding to the funding reduction with a 7-percent staff reduction.

“God has never promised us a certain budget number,” said Gary Schneeberger, vice president of communications for Focus on the Family (FoF), in a statement.  “He’s only called us to spend the money He provides responsibly and to help as many families as possible. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”

In the last 10 years, FoF’s staff has been reduced by more than half. In 2002, FoF had about 1,400 employees; once the layoffs go through, it will have about 650 people on staff.

FoF has blamed reduced donations on the economy.

“Many nonprofit and for-profit organizations have had to close their doors due to the ravages of these tough economic times,” Schneeberger said. ”We’re encouraged by our donors’ trust in us and will continue to honor and earn it.

“Tears have been spilled on both sides of these decisions, because these aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet,” he continued. “These are friends who share our passion to do the Lord’s work. Given economic realities, though, we had to ensure we continue to maximize the resources we have to help spouses in their marriages, help parents raise their kids and help Christians walk out their faith with boldness and joy.”

In the past three years, FoF — along with its Washington, D.C.-based affiliate the Family Research Council – has used its donations to fight initiatives to legalize same-sex marriage at the state level. In 2008 (PDF) and 2009 (PDF), the group contributed about $200,000 to anti-gay-marriage political campaigns in California, Maine and Washington, D.C., according to financial statements submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). FoF donated about $50,000 Exodus International, the country’s larges “ex-gay” ministry. FoF also spends significant funds on donations to crisis pregnancy centers and on supporting anti-abortion-rights ad campaigns throughout the country. This year, FoF paid for a controversial anti-abortion-rights Super Bowl commercial that starred Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.

Many of FoF’s state-based affiliates have benefited from a massive political funding campaign called “Ignite an Enduring Cultural Transformation,” where funds are funneled to states with majority-Republican control to oppose same-sex marriage, abortion rights and transgender rights. As The American Independent has reported, most of the Ignite plans were launched with an anonymous matching-grant donor, and FoF has claimed it has no involvement in the program despite being “fully associated” with its affiliates.

FoF experienced a slight budget surplus in 2008, ending the year with about $130 million in revenue. The following year however, FoF ended the year with $109 million in revenue and a $12 million deficit. Further budget reductions in 2010 led the organization to eliminate more than 100 jobs.

Initial claims have remained sustained around 450,000 or 470,000 since January, the strongest evidence of the stall-out in the recovery. The four-week claims average, which smooths out weekly volatility, is at 485,500 — a bit lower after climbing for weeks.

The data shows that the manufacturing sector has improved, year on year, though layoffs remain high. This July, manufacturers made 25 percent of mass layoffs, accounting for 31 percent of new unemployment claims. A year ago, it accounted for 37 percent of events and 46 percent of claims.

But the bad news? This year, the single subsector that laid off the highest number of workers en masse is secondary and elementary schools. In July. Right before the school year starts. Bus drivers weren’t spared either.

Via Politico, unions and advocacy groups are buying newspaper pages and advertising minutes in Maine to convince Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) to vote for cloture. The state aid bill would save or create 140,000 jobs, and without it numerous states would begin making immediate layoffs of public workers to close fiscal gaps. (All states save for Vermont are required to run balanced budgets every year.)

Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seemed “optimistic” about the cloture vote, which will happen around 10:30 a.m. If the bill reaches cloture, it goes on to a majority-rules vote. It then needs to be voted on by the House and signed by the president.

President Obama signs the unemployment benefits extension bill on Thursday. (epa/ZUMApress.com)

Late Thursday afternoon, President Obama signed into law a bill granting workers out of a job for more than 26 weeks additional unemployment insurance payments, paid for by the federal government. The benefits had been in place since November 2009, but had lapsed for seven weeks — an unprecedented hiatus, given the 9.5 percent unemployment rate. The bill, held up in the Senate for more than two months by Republicans concerned about the deficit, makes benefits retroactive to June 2 and forward to Nov. 30. In states with higher than 8 percent unemployment, workers will continue to receive up to 99 weeks of benefits.

[Economy1] Around the country, the 99ers — those who have exhausted the maximum number of weeks of federal and state unemployment benefits — rejoiced.

“I’m thrilled to death — this is helping two million people,” LaDona King, a 50-year-old from San Diego, said shortly after passage. “That’s very important. That’s not a small thing, by any means. Of course it is overdue — this initially passed in the House on March 10.”

King — a blogger and radio host who under the name Paladinette doggedly advocates for the interests of the unemployed, and 99ers in particular — hopes that help is coming for her next. Indeed, though she makes some money writing about the concerns of the unemployed, King is a 99er herself. (She notes that the $200 a month or so she gets for her writing disqualifies her from food stamps, leaving her to utilize food banks when she needs to.)

She lost her job as a compliance specialist at a Southern California subprime lender a few years ago. That kicked off a string of bad luck: She nearly died when a drunk driver hit her, and was unable to look for work. Her father passed, and she cared for him in his final months. She ended up so depressed as to be suicidal, uninsured and unable to access mental health services. The third and fourth tiers of extended benefits — passed last November — were lifesaving.

“I am still so upbeat, and so grateful,” she said cheerily on the phone. “It’s great when people help people. What I’m really concerned about is the families giving their children up to the state because they can’t take care of them. It’s the people who aren’t healthy. It is the lack of mental health services.”

Now, King advocates for 99ers, pressing members of Congress to extend benefits beyond 99 weeks and to create additional job-training and public works programs to get them back to work. She believes that though Congress has not helped the 99ers yet, the effort has proven successful. “Two months ago, nobody knew who the 99ers were,” she says. “Everybody thought it was some city’s AAA baseball team.”

And she puts the odds at better than 50-50 that Congress will pass something, anything, to help the swelling ranks. “A number of members have told me that there are people working on legislation for the 99ers, that they want to start something,” King says. “I call 25 to 30 a people a day on this on Washington. Thank God for unlimited long distance!”

But even the most active members of Congress on the unemployment issue say there will be no bill to help 99ers by adding a fifth tier of benefits — the most direct way to keep families and individuals out of poverty. “What we’ve seen in this fight is the difficulty of just expanding the program that we have,” says Ed Shelleby, a spokesman for Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), the head of the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the Ways and Means Committee.

The Ways and Means Committee originates most bills concerning unemployment, Social Security, Medicare and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or welfare benefits. Thus far, McDermott is the only member of Congress to have held hearings addressing the plight of the 99ers specifically, and Shelleby says that the congressman “recognize[s] the need to help long-term unemployed folks legislatively” and believes that after unemployment insurance ends “we can’t let millions of people fall off a cliff.”

Still, he notes, “We have to face reality.” The most probable route forward would be expanding existing programs. An additional tier of unemployment benefits is out — something Democratic Senate staffers confirm. But senators including Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have said they are working on some provisions to aid the long-term unemployed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he supports expanding benefits or creating programs for 99ers. The problem will be finding the money to offset the cost of the programs, and convincing spending-phobic Republicans — who increasingly argue that benefits should be cut to encourage people to go back to work — to vote for them.

The House is not looking at a fifth tier of benefits, instead reviewing public works programs and other ways to subsidize job creation. Shelleby said the expansion of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund might be one route forward. “That was put in place after the recession hit to help states, basically to aid them in subsidizing jobs,” he said. “It has hugely bipartisan support.” But the fund is only $5 billion — a pittance even compared with the $34 billion benefits extension just passed, itself a pittance of the $150 billion jobs bill Democrats hoped to pass. Quintupling it, if even possible, might have only marginal effects on aid for the 99ers.

The Senate inaction comes as the government reassesses the severity of the long-term unemployment crisis. Previously, the economists estimated the number of 99ers to be around 1 million. (In June, the Labor Department said that 4.3 million Americans have been unemployed for more than one year.) But the number is hard to tally. There is no way to track exactly what happens to individuals when they stop collecting benefits — whether they make it back to work, or stop looking for a job, or continue the job search. And with the recession lagging on, some Labor Department economists believe the number might be as high as two or three million — a population the size of Dallas, and bigger than the U.S. military.

And no matter how big that population is now, economists fear it is set to grow. Ninety-nine weeks ago, the recession had been ongoing for about eight months. But employment is a lagging indicator. It takes some time for businesses to notice the downturn in sales, and to make the choice to start reducing their workforces. That started happening in 2008 — when the pace of layoffs climbed precipitously. In the first eight months of 2008, employers laid off 1.2 million workers. In the final four months, they laid off 2.4 million.

More layoffs two years ago translates into more 99ers now. And with job growth lagging far below levels needed to reduce the unemployment rate, the jobs situation continues to look parlous.

Still, King remains upbeat, and maintains hope that Congress will have to address the plight of 99ers at some point.

“There’s a lot of people suffering. I have to believe they’ll try their best to do something,” she said. “Because there are millions of us waiting to vote in the fall, as well.”

Last week, claims had dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years. But the Labor Department says last week’s drop was a blip, noting that weekly jobless claims tend to be a jumpy measure. Big manufacturers like General Motors made fewer temporary layoffs than usual, due to higher demand and the already reduced size of their workforce.

“This country is about to face a massive wave of layoffs in our schools and institutions of higher learning that could weaken our economic recovery and cause serious damage to our education system,” Harkin said in a statement. “This bill is an investment in our kids, in our economy and in our future.

“Recent headlines make the case that two pillars of the American dream — a good job and a good education — are at risk for millions upon millions of our citizens. At this point in our fragile recovery, we need to put Americans back to work educating the next generation, and that’s what this bill does.”

The House plans to take a similar measure up this week in a supplemental appropriations bill, mostly filled with war-funding measures. The House actually already approved the measure in December, as part of a jobs package now stalled in the Senate. Senators are expected to return to the measure this week (but not before Tuesday’s primaries) and they are expected to pare it back to win over the votes of centrist Democrats worried about deficits.

This is just one worrying instance of the federal government possibly wavering or pulling back on offering benefits to keep state workers employed and other forms of stimulus. Democrats killed a $24 billion state aid package in the House. The extension of COBRA health benefits for the unemployed might be at risk, as might the Doc Fix for Medicare.

As Ezra Klein*, Matthew Yglesias and Stephen Gordon explain, keeping up state employment is important as a form of stimulus. And pairing reductions in state spending due to the recession with increases in federal spending for stimulus, there has not been an expansion in government spending over the course of the recession.

For more good reading on the wave of coming layoffs for teachers, see Seyward Darby’s new piece in The New Republic on the possible ill effects of last-in, first-out provisions.

*Full disclosure: Ezra is my “unmarried domestic partner,” in the romantic phrasing of the Census.

“Announced job cuts have, for all intents and purposes, returned to pre-recession levels. What makes the low job-cut totals we have seen this spring particularly remarkable is that we still have not reached what is the slowest downsizing period of the year, which typically occurs during the summer months,” John Challenger, the company’s chief executive, said in a release. “It is difficult to imagine the pace of downsizing slowing even further, considering that the economy, while recovering, is still in a relatively fragile state. However, monthly job cuts may indeed continue to fall during the summer, when many businesses hold off on making dramatic staffing changes.”

But the private sector has thus far not added many jobs. And local and state governments are being hit with rising expenditures on social programs as well as declining tax revenue — meaning job cuts are coming. A recent National League of Cities report warned of major service and payroll cuts. Thus, even if the unemployment rate falls, it might do so only slowly.

The next major Labor Department unemployment report comes out on Friday, and economists are expecting the economy to create 500,000 new jobs.