Job seekers urged to be persistent

The US unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent last month from 9.8 percent in September, the highest level since April 1983. Meanwhile, US employers cut jobs for the 22d consecutive month in October, shedding another 190,000 positions and bringing total job losses in the recession to 7.3 million.

In Boston, Suzanne Bump, state secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, told unemployed workers attending a career seminar that they will need to be patient and persistent, as well as willing to retrain, as they search for jobs.

In the second quarter of the year, there were nearly six unemployed workers for every job opening in the state, the highest ratio since the state launched the quarterly vacancy survey in 2002.

“It’s hard to predict when it’s going to get better,’’ Bump said. “It’s an employer’s market. Employers can afford to be picky.’’

The state will report October employment figures in about two weeks. In September, the Massachusetts jobless rate rose to 9.3 percent, the highest since 1976. Massachusetts employers cut more than 9,000 jobs in September, reversing a trend of diminishing job losses, which had slipped to 700 in August.

The October report, Bump said, will show “whether the job losses in September were a temporary setback, or whether it signals an even tougher climb out of the hole.’’

Even though the US economy has begun to recover, many economists forecast that unemployment will continue to rise into 2010 as employers remain cautious, preferring to meet growing demand by increasing hours for existing workers rather than hiring new ones.

Such forecasts led Congress this week to pass legislation extending jobless benefits for another 20 weeks. The bill, which also extended and expanded popular home buyer tax credits, was signed into law by President Obama yesterday.

The jobless benefit extension will help about 2 million Americans, including up to 40,000 in Massachusetts, whose benefits recently expired or would have expired by the end of the year.

Bump said the long and deep recession has tested the unemployment system as never before. For example, a state fund that helps unemployed workers pay for health insurance is expected to be exhausted by the end of the year as more people lose jobs and remain unemployed longer.

“The system was not designed for this kind of economic crisis,’’ she said.

Bump said her agency has significantly increased staff at the state’s career centers, which help people find jobs, connecting them to training, education, and other resources.

Today’s jobs, Bump added, demand higher levels of skills and education. The state’s job vacancy survey, for example, found that more than 40 percent of job openings required at least an associate’s degree. In growing fields such as health care, more than 70 percent of openings required at least an associate’s degree.

“In this economy,’’ Bump said, “there are no jobs for high school dropouts.’’

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com.