That is the new unemployment figure, which will come as another blow to the Obama administration struggling to tell us that the central issue of our time is the “health-care crisis.”

Politico reports:

August may be over, but it’s causing one last headache for the Obama administration as the jobless rate jumped up to 9.7 percent, the highest point yet this recession and higher than what economists expected from the monthly report.

Employers cut 216,000 non-farm jobs in August last month, which was actually slightly fewer job cuts than the consensus prediction, and experts saw other positive signs in the details.

But that’s not what the headlines will say.

“But the number that’s going to matter to most people is the unemployment rate, and 9.7 percent is disconcerting,” economist Mark Zandi said on CNBC after the release.

The unemployment rate is now the highest since June 1983, and many economists believe it will eventually top 10 percent.

So why is the president talking to us about ObamaCare next week instead of a new plan to promote growth and job creation? He must not understand he’s picked the wrong issue on which to focus and risks appearing utterly out of touch.

And what will this health-care plan entail? Well, more taxes and mandates on those same businesses that are shedding jobs. It is in a sense politically incomprehensible that he would continue his quest for ObamaCare (in an effort to save political face) while the country bleeds jobs.