Unemployment Rate Unchanged at 9.7%

Unemployment is now considered to be one of two principal threats to home retention here in the United States â€" the other being underwater mortgages. For months, industry experts have lamented the nation's poor[IMAGE]job market as a stranglehold on the housing market's recovery and a dead weight dragging down occupancy rates and new development in the commercial real estate sector.

But according to ""data released by the Department of Labor"":http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm Friday, the national unemployment rate was flat from January to February at 9.7 percent. Employers shed just 36,000 jobs during the month â€" far fewer than the 68,000 job cuts economists were expecting because of severe winter weather conditions.

The White House said in a statement, ""Although the labor market remains severely distressed, today's report on the employment situation is consistent with the pattern of stabilization and gradual labor market healing we have been seeing in recent months.""

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Commentary just released by IHS Global Insight echoes this optimism. ""The February jobs report suggests that the economy is on the verge of creating jobs, and that it will break through to sustained job creation beginning in March,"" the firm's chief U.S. economist, Nigel Gault, wrote.

On Thursday, just prior to the Labor Department's new numbers, the House of Representatives approved legislation that provides $15 billion to spur job creation. Those who voted in favor of the bill estimate that the measure could provide new jobs to 1 million Americans. It was met with much opposition from House members, though, who made numerous changes to the version that had already been approved by the Senate, which means it must go through another round of reconciliation before it lands on the president's desk.

To help mitigate the jobless effect on local housing markets, President Obama ""announced a new initiative last month"":http://dsnews.comarticles/obama-pledges-15b-for-unemployed-and-underwater-homeowners-2010-02-19 that provides federal funding to states where unemployment is exceptionally high. These grants will be used by housing finance agencies to develop targeted loan modification programs for homeowners who've lost their income and as a result can't qualify for a conventional modification.

In late February, the ""Mortgage Bankers Association introduced"":http://dsnews.comarticles/mba-develops-forbearance-program-for-unemployed-2010-02-24 its own plan aimed at helping unemployed homeowners. The trade group's proposal calls for the Treasury to provide low-interest loans to servicers so they can offer reduced mortgage payments to unemployed borrowers for up to nine months while they search for a new job.