Employers continued to shed jobs from their payrolls in September as the unemployment rate reached 9.8 percent, according to a report by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Payroll employment fell by 263,000 jobs in September. The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and government. From May through September, job losses averaged 307,000 per month.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the unemployment rate has doubled.

In September, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and more) rose by 450,000 to 5.4 million. In September, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were job-less for 27 weeks or more.

There were 706,000 discouraged workers in September, up by 239,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are those not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.