{"id":3156,"date":"2010-01-08T16:00:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T21:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=3156"},"modified":"2010-01-08T17:07:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T22:07:47","slug":"december-unemployment-holds-steady-at-10-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/08\/december-unemployment-holds-steady-at-10-percent\/","title":{"rendered":"December Unemployment Holds Steady at 10 Percent"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m looking for good news in the December Jobs Report, but I can’t find any…<\/p>\n

From Reuters<\/a>:<\/p>\n

U.S. employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, confounding expectations the labor market was finally stabilizing and piling pressure on President Barack Obama to spur job growth.<\/p>\n

Unemployment, which held steady at 10 percent, remains the Achilles heel of the economy’s recovery from its worst recession in 70 years. Creating jobs is critical to sustaining the recovery when government stimulus fades.<\/p>\n

November payrolls were revised to show the economy actually added 4,000 jobs rather than losing 11,000, as initially reported, breaking a streak of 22 consecutive monthly losses, the Labor Department’s report on Friday showed.<\/p>\n

With revisions to October, however, the economy lost 1,000 more jobs than previously estimated over the October-November period and the stable unemployment rate in December reflected a surprisingly large number of discouraged jobseekers leaving the labor force.<\/p>\n

December’s payrolls plunge was much worse than what economists had expected. Wall Street had forecast a flat reading and a tick up in the unemployment rate to 10.1 percent.<\/p>\n

Payrolls fell in the manufacturing, construction and the service-providing sectors. Government employment also dipped.<\/p>\n

Still, analysts said the data suggested a broad trend toward a labor market recovery was intact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Intact??? Not hardly, if it hadn’t been for another 600,000 plus workers dropping out of workforce, unemployment rate would have been 10.4 percent. In other words the unemployment rate dropped because 600,000 plus people gave up looking for work and are no longer being counted as part of the workforce… it’s statistical hocus pocus not a labor market recovery. Take a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Alternative measures of labor underutilization table here<\/a>… Two things standout first U-1 or Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force has increased in each of the last four months from a seasonally adjusted 5.5 percent in September to 5.9 percent in December. Second U-6 or the Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers climbed back up to 17.3 percent in December.<\/p>\n

If there’s recovery, it’s a jobless one.<\/p>\n

Related<\/strong><\/p>\n