The jobless rate rose to a fresh 26-year high of 9.8% from August’s figure of 9.7% as the US economy has shed 7.6 million jobs since the recession began.

The number in employment has now fallen for 21 consecutive months.

There was more bad news from the Labor Department, which revised its figures for July and August to show 13,000 more jobs lost than previously reported.

The economy as a whole is expected to have grown in the past three months, but recovery in the jobs market tends to lag behind the rest of the economy.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of people out of work has risen by 7.6 million to 15.1 million.

Government employment, which has been one of the factors boosting the economy in the past year, fell by 53,000 in September.

The other big areas of job losses were construction, manufacturing and retail.