The numbers are remarkable: Nearly 16 million Americans are without work. The unemployment rate is 10.2 percent. And 190,000 more jobs were lost in October, an outcome worth cheering only when compared with the month-by-month carnage that has brought the nation its biggest employment crisis in 26 years.

There were some positive numbers in yesterday's Labor Department jobs report for October: Temporary hiring increased; it's considered a leading indicator of permanent hiring to come. And overtime hours edged up 12 minutes, as companies added time, if not people.

But those numbers do little to counter the effect of an economy that added 558,000 people to the ranks of unemployment last month and kept 5.6 million, more than a third of the unemployed, off the job for more than six months.

Among them is Janet Swift, of Northeast Philadelphia, a former human-resources manager at Kraft Foods, attending a breakfast yesterday morning by the Philadelphia Human Resource Planning Society.

"I honestly believe there are glimmers of hope," said Swift, who, after 17 years of experience, has been out of work for nine months. Still no job, but after months of getting close to zero responses to her resumes, she is getting some return calls.

"I've never experienced this in my life," she said. "It's going to take some time."

The Labor Department's report is the first since the government said last week that the economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the strongest signal yet that the economy was rebounding. But that isn't fast enough to spur rapid hiring, raising the specter of a jobless recovery. Factoring in people who were too discouraged to look for work or who are working part time because they couldn't get a full-time job, the unemployment rate was 17.5 percent in October. President Obama called the new jobs report another illustration of why much more was needed to spur business creation and consumer spending.

What it will take

"I will not rest until all Americans who want work can find work," said Obama, who yesterday signed legislation to extend unemployment benefits for laid-off workers.

"You need explosive growth to take the unemployment rate down," said Dan Greenhaus, economic strategist for the New York-based investment firm Miller Tabak & Co. L.L.C.

Greenhaus said the economy soared nearly 8 percent in 1983 after a steep recession, lowering the jobless rate 2.5 percentage points that year. But, he said, the economy is unlikely to improve that fast this time, as consumers remain cautious and as tight credit hinders businesses.

The reluctance to spend is reflected in the decline in retail employment. Nearly 40,000 positions were cut last month, particularly in sporting-goods and department stores. Even stores selling electronics failed to draw enough customers to sustain hiring. "People aren't finding jobs, as far as I can see," said John Dodds, director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, an advocacy group for the unemployed, "and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while."

In October, temporary-help services added 33,700 jobs nationally, the biggest bump since the category began an upward trend in July. Employers tend to hire temporary and temp-to-perm workers before adding full-time slots.

Architects and engineers are still losing jobs. Because these professionals work at the start of construction and industrial projects, last month's decline of 7,700 jobs is evidence that companies are still either unable or reluctant to make major capital investments. At a leadership breakfast yesterday for 350 at the Union League, hiring managers said they were seeing some faint upward trends.

'A little fall-off'

"We're starting to recruit again, and it's a little while since we did that," said Allyson Adamusik, a director of global human resources at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., in the Philadelphia area. The company had laid off earlier in the year. Frank Powell, vice president of business development at Lee Hecht Harrison, a national company that provides employment counseling for laid-off workers, said: "We are seeing a little fall-off in revenues" as fewer people need his company's services.

"The first quarter was the strongest," said Powell, who works in Lee Hecht's Plymouth Meeting office. "It was being at the top of a very high mountain. We're still busy, but it's just fewer people."

The short straw

The Labor Department report showed continued declines in construction, manufacturing, information, leisure, and hospitality, while business and professional services gained, along with education and health services. Government hiring was flat.

Employment in financial activities dropped by 8,000. One of the lost jobs belonged to Vicki Brown, formerly a leadership-development specialist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. She was laid off a week ago, the second time in this recession.

In June 2008, Brown, of Wilmington, lost a human-resources job at American International Group Inc. when the insurer went through its meltdown. She had worked there for more than 20 years.

Then, in November 2008, she landed the PNC job. "I was very lucky," she said. But that's over for now. "I pulled the short end of the straw."

Brown says she's optimistic because "there's a lot of pent-up demand, even though companies are reluctant to hire. Everyone is tearing their hair out from being overworked."

Contact staff writer Jane M.

Von Bergen at 215-854-2769

or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.