Hitting double-digits for the first time in a generation, U.S. unemployment reached 10.2 percent last month, up from 9.8 percent in September.

The October rate is the highest since late 1982. The Christian Science Monitor reports, “After dismal jobs report, unemployment rate could hit postwar high,” the new government data has economists reconsidering their earlier economic projections.

“We have been forecasting a 10.5 percent peak for the unemployment rate in mid-2010; given that it is already at 10.2 percent, this could be too low,” writes Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist for MFR Inc. in New York.

The $787 billion stimulus bill pushed by President Obama and passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress last February is looking increasingly like a failure of sorts. At the time, the Obama administration promised that passing the huge tax and spending bill would keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.

A recent administration claimed that the stimulus bill had created or saved more than 600,000 jobs (how do you accurately measure how a job is “saved.”) But media analysises of the documentation has found numerous errors that contributed to an inflated count, “White House tally appears to overstate stimulus jobs.”

For example, raises paid to some preschool teachers with stimulus dollars were mistakenly counted as saved jobs.

And a Kentucky shoe store that supplied nine pairs of work boots to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers counted the $800 expenditure as saving nine jobs.

That large of a bang for the buck was too good to be true.

Iowa Workforce Development released its monthly unemployment reports today, which showed little statistical change locally, “Sioux City area unemployment rises, despite job gains”

Unemployment in nearly all Northwest Iowa counties was below the statewide average of 6.7 percent for September. Three exceptions were Emmet, 8.7 percent, Monona, 7.1 percent, and Palo Alto, 7 percent. Sioux County posted the lowest area rate of 4.1 percent.

Unemployment in metro Sioux City hit a four-year high in June as the national recessionary economy continued to prompt local employers to cut payrolls and hold off on hiring decisions.

In June, the seasonally unadjusted jobless for the metro area — Woodbury County in Iowa, Union County in South Dakota and Dakota and Dixon counties in Nebraska — hit 5.5 percent, up from 5 percent in May, according to a state report released this morning. That’s the highest local rate since March 2005 when it hit 5.6 percent, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

Read more online here and in print Wednesday.

Heading into the weekend, the economic news seems to be turning from bad to worse. If that’s even possible. Consider some of today’s top headlines.

Economy in ‘Free-Fall’: Unemployment Rate Surges to 8.1 percent

Another 651,000 U.S. jobs were lost in February, the Labor Department said today, bringing the total number of jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007 to 4.4 million.

The unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent, it’s the highest level in 25 years

Stocks look cheap, but they could get cheaper

“There’s no doubt that people can look at market valuations and determine that stocks are relatively inexpensive — but that doesn’t mean they’re going to quit going down,” said Michael Gibbs, director of equity strategy at Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis, Tenn.

The high jobless numbers for February pushed Dow Jones industrial average below 6,500 for the first time in nearly 12 years. But in late afternoon trading, the blue chips pushed into positive territory, as investors looked for bargains.

John Deere lays off more workers

Closer to home, tri-state manufacturers continue to shed jobs.

Farm equipment John Deere Co. today announced 325 employees will be placed on indefinite layoff at its Quad-Cities area later this month. It’s the second major layoff this year.

Verifications, which does employment screening for global and national companies, today said it has has laid off 27 people at its three South Dakota locations, in Aberdeen, Mitchell and Watertown.

As we reported yesterday, Terex Load King said it has suspended manufacturing at its Elk Point, S.D. trailer plant, idling about 80 workers.