The job news is not good — still :
U.S. job losses resumed in December after revisions showed payrolls rose in November for the first time in nearly two years, the Labor Department estimated Friday. Nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 85,000 in December following a revised 4,000 gain in November. During 2009, payrolls fell by 4.2 million. Since the recession began two years ago, payrolls have fallen by 7.3 million. Next month, the government will incorporate annual benchmark revisions that will likely push the total job loss to more than 8 million. The official unemployment rate remained at 10% in December. Details of the report were weak, with few signs of further improvement in labor conditions. One bright spot: temporary help jobs rose by 46,500, a leading indicator of permanent employment.
However, fewer industries were hiring in December than in October, and the number of discouraged workers rose by 287,000 to 929,000. The employment participation rate fell to 64.6% from 64.9%. Total hours worked in the economy were unchanged. The average workweek was unchanged at 33.2 hours.
The prospect of long-term, sky-high unemployment is a daunting one for Americans, as well as for those in office. As the White House persists in its dogged pursuit of ObamaCare, looks forward to the day when it can raise taxes by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, and insists that climate-change legislation is still on the table, the public may come to see the Obami as increasingly out to lunch. The insistence by the president on pursuing anti-growth and anti-jobs policies while sprinkling in small-beans jobs initiatives (another one is set to be announced today on “clean technology manufacturing jobs”) suggests that he really doesn’t grasp the fact that job producers in the private sector need more than dog-and-pony shows to get them to jump-start their hiring. The administration might start with “doing no harm” — committing to raising no taxes on any American until the economy recovers. Now that would be a change we could believe in.
