by Calculated Risk on 11/02/2009 06:33:00 PM

Update: from Bloomberg: Locke Was ‘Imprecise’ in Comments on Second Stimulus

Kevin Griffis, a Commerce Department spokesman, said in a telephone interview after Locke spoke that the secretary was referring to “all the different job-creating measures being considered” by lawmakers rather than a single stimulus measure.

Earlier post: From Bloomberg: Obama’s Advisers Are Considering Second Stimulus, Locke Says

President Barack Obama’s advisers are “seriously” considering proposing a second stimulus measure to boost the economy, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview.

Locke said another stimulus would be “very targeted and specific and we need to be mindful of the deficit as well.”

Atrios notes: "Had a pet theory that they'd wait until unemployment rounded that magic 10% mark."

We could see 10% on Friday. The unemployment rate was 9.83% in September (before rounding); an increase of 0.17% from August.

Although there probably were fewer job losses in October than in September (BLS reported 263,000 jobs lost), if a few more people were participating in the work force - perhaps looking for one of the scarce holiday retail jobs - the unemployment rate could easily hit 10% for October. If not in October, then probably in November.