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Unemployed Americans line up to enter a job fair on the first day of the Labor Day long weekend in the City of El Monte outside of Los Angeles on September 4, 2010. US unemployment jumped to 9.6 percent in August, the Labor Department said, showing the recovering economy is still struggling to create jobs.

President Obama presented his plan for creating jobs Thursday night. The speech had special meaning for Bruce Pierce, a long-term unemployed man in Los Angeles. KPCC's business reporter Shereen Marisol Meraji checked in with Pierce before and after the speech. He said he's hopeful he can just make it through the next months with an extension of unemployment benefits, which was a part of the plan Obama proposed.