WASHINGTON - October 7, 2010 - The number of Amerikans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18% from a year earlier and increased 1.4% from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

Unemployment in September may have reached 9.7%, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the release of last month’s rate on October 8. Unemployment was 9.6% in July, near levels last seen in 1983.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began October 1, according to White House estimates.