Labor Department: 200,000 Jobs Added in December
Economists had forecast a much smaller jump in jobs. The unemployment rate also fell to 8.5 percent.
The United States added 200,000 jobs in December, according to the Labor Department–far more than analysts had expected. (Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a gain of 155,000.)
The unemployment rate also fell, albeit modestly, to 8.5 percent in December, from 8.6 percent in November.
Earlier this week, ADP a payroll processing company, released its own figures, which showed a huge gain of 325,000 private sector jobs were added in December.
The New York Times reports:
The upward trend restored some of the ground lost this spring and summer, when global events like the earthquake in Japan and domestic ones like the debt ceiling debate slowed the American recovery to a crawl and raised fears of a second recession. Then, even signs of modest growth were dismissed as too anemic. Now, they are drawing tentative praise.
“People were very much thinking that the sky was falling,” said Tom Porcelli, an economist at RBC Capital Markets. “It’s no small victory that we’re up here, even with all these headwinds.”
Up here, Mr. Porcelli was quick to note, is none too lofty a perch.
Lowering the unemployment rate significantly would require many more jobs a month than the economy has been adding. And there are several factors that could weigh down what momentum there is.
Congress may yet decline to continue extensions of the payroll tax break and unemployment benefits that have given families a lift and boosted spending. Money, in the form of loans, is still hard to come by. Home values continue to drop. And though the most recent numbers make it look as if the United States is shrugging off the troubles in the euro zone, a severe slowdown there or, worse, a catastrophic financial collapse, is still a threat.
—Eric Markowitz
