Nov. 6--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 are some positive numbers in today's U.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 the 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 resource manager at Kraft Foods attending a breakfast this 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 now 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 is 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 job hunt, or who are working part time because they can't get full-time work, the unemployment rate was 17.5 percent in October.

President Obama called the new jobs report another illustration of why much more work is needed to spur business creation and consumer spending.

"I will not rest until all Americans who want work can find work," Obama said in mentioning legislation he is signing to provide additional unemployment benefits for laid-off workers.

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

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