Unemployment in the U.S. is falling steadily.
December 3, 2011- Figures released on Friday showed the unemployment rate in the U.S. took an unexpected drop in November. The current rate of 8.6% is the lowest the country has seen in more than 2 ½ years. Economists announced they were optimistic but said there was a long road ahead.
Over 140,000 new jobs were added by the private sector in November. Nevertheless, that figure was lowered to a net of 120,000 because 20,000 jobs were lost in the public sector at the local, state and federal level.
September’s new job rate was also adjusted up to 210,000 from the original 158,000 figure. The 80,000 increase in new jobs for October was also adjusted up by an additional 20,000 to 100,000.
One of Moody’s chief economists, Mark Zandi said, “The job market is beginning to firm up at the end of this year. Job growth, particularly with small businesses, has increased in the last few months.”
He added, “The improvement in new jobs is encouraging but the job market continues to struggle. However, it has begun to see some momentum heading into the New Year.”
The market responded positively to the announcement early Friday, but ended the day flat. Nevertheless, the market ended the week 787 points higher. Making it the highest gain for a week since October 2008, when the country was mired in the financial crisis.
Unemployment numbers are comprised of those that are in the job market for the past 30 days. It does not include those that have not been in the job market in the last 30 days: people who have given up looking; those that have gone off unemployment because it has run out. One solution to unemployment is High Speed Universities check it out
The more accurate figure of unemployment is closer to 22.6% based on how the US government used to calculate unemployment numbers. Labor force participation rates are the numbers to watch, because if a person in the USA is out of work for X amount of months, they simply stop being counted as a member of the labor force (i.e. they gave up looking for work). That is how it can appear that unemployment is dropping, even as labor force participation rate is also dropping.