December jobs report: Unemployment falls to 9.4% - Lowest Since May 2009 + Jobs Report Disappoints = economy added 103,000 jobs + Private Sector Improves Jobs Picture Only Moderately

[mEDITate-OR:
wonder why anyone stayed up to read/see this...
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Bottom line? This jobs report is better than a bad jobs report. But it's not yet a good one.
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The United States economy ended the year by adding 103,000 jobs in December, a number that missed expectations.

In addition, the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent last month from 9.8 percent, its lowest rate since July 2009, in part because many American gave up looking for work.

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Since December 2009, non-farm employment has increased by 1.1 million, or an average of 94,000 a month.

Economists generally estimate that the economy needs to add more than 120,000 jobs a month simply to absorb newcomers into the labor force, a pace that employers fell behind last year.

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Sadly, the translation here is that about 44.3% of those who are unemployed were without a job for longer than six months.

Average hourly earnings rose by $0.03 to $22.78 in December from a level of $22.75 in November

while the average hours was flat at 34.3 hours.

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Faster job growth is needed to keep consumer spending accelerating and ensure the economic recovery becomes self- sustaining.

Payrolls need to grow about double December’s pace to make further progress in lowering the jobless rate

Private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, rose by 113,000 last month after a 79,000 November gain.

Manufacturing payrolls rose by 10,000 in December. Economists had projected an increase of 5,000.

Employment at service-providers increased 105,000.

The number of temporary workers rose 16,000.

Construction companies reduced payrolls by 16,000

     {Construction payrolls declined by the most since May}

retailers added 12,000 workers.

professional and business services added the fewest number of jobs in five months.

Government payrolls decreased by 10,000.

State and local governments reduced employment by 20,000

while the federal government added 10,000 jobs.

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To put this in context, remember that the economy needs to be adding more than 100,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

If we begin adding more than 200,000 jobs a month, it'll take about five years to return to full employment.

Bottom line? This jobs report is better than a bad jobs report. But it's not yet a good one.

------------   This year

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Private Sector Improves Jobs Picture Only Moderately
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/business/economy/08jobs.html?src=twrhp#tab=2
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