Monday, December 7, 2009

November's Good News

Friday's report on the employment figures was the most heartening news we've had on that front in years, and could signal we're about to reach a turning point. The number of new jobless, at 11,000, was the smallest in two years, since the very start of the recession in December 2007. The consensus estimate from economic analysts had been 100,000 - meaning the real number was about a tenth of that.

Just as important, the numbers for the previous two months were revised downward; it turns out we lost 159,000 fewer jobs than the original reports indicated. Add it all together and the unemployment rate dropped from 10.2 percent to 10 percent.

There were still job losses in the construction, manufacturing, and information
industries, but those were offset by gains and professional and business services, and in health care. Professional and business services added 86,000 jobs in November, and health care another 21,000. It's nice to see that the growth is not in government-related areas; these increases aren't just from the stimulus package.

At the same time, let's not lose sight of where we are. There are still 15.4 million unemployed people in the country. At the start of the recession two years ago, when the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, there were just 7.5 million unemployed people - less than half of what we have today.

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