Unemployment rate falls to lowest since March 2009
Friday, December 02, 2011
Unemployment rate falls to lowest since March
2009
By: Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. unemployment rate fell last month to
its lowest level in more than 2½ years. More of the unemployed
either found jobs or gave up looking and were no longer counted as
unemployed.
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate
dropped sharply to 8.6 percent, down from 9 percent in October. The
rate hasn't been that low since March 2009, during the depths of
the recession.
About 13.3 million Americans remain unemployed.
Employers added 120,000 jobs last month. And the previous two
months were revised up to show that 72,000 more jobs added - the
fourth straight month that the government has revised prior months
higher.
Private employers added a net gain of 140,000 jobs in November.
But governments shed 20,000 jobs, mostly at the local and state
level. Governments at all levels have shed nearly a half-million
jobs in the past year.
More than half the jobs added last month were by retailers,
restaurants and bars, a sign that holiday hiring has kicked in.
Retailers added 50,000, the sector's biggest gain since April.
Restaurants and bars hired 33,000 workers. The health care industry
added 17,000.
Even with the recent gains, the economy isn't anywhere close to
replacing the jobs lost in the recession. Employers began shedding
workers in February 2008 and cut nearly 8.7 million jobs for the
next 25 months. Since then, the economy has regained nearly 2.5
million of those jobs.
The presidential election is less than a year away, which means
President Barack Obama will almost certainly face voters with the
highest unemployment rate of any president since World War II.
Still, if the rate continues to decline, Obama stands to
benefit.
And Europe's financial crisis threatens to slow U.S. growth next
year. A recession in Europe could reduce U.S. exports, hurt global
financial markets and dampen business confidence.
Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, estimates that
the economy will expand 2.5 percent in the last three months of
this year. But he expects growth to slow to 1.5 percent in 2012,
partly because of the crisis in Europe. And if Congress fails to
extend the Social Security tax cut and long-term unemployment
benefits this month, growth is likely to slow even further.
Weak job growth means companies don't have to raise pay to keep
their employees. Fewer jobs and lower pay leaves consumers with
less money to spend. That's holding back economic growth.
In the past three months, the economy has added an average of
143,000 net jobs per month. That's enough to keep up with
population growth and better than the previous three months, when
the economy averaged just 84,000.
Other recent economic reports have been positive, too.
Factory output expanded last month. Retailers reported a strong
start to holiday sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumer
confidence surged in November to the highest level since July, and
Americans' pay rose in October by the most in seven months.
Car sales also rose sharply in November, normally a lackluster
month for the auto industry. Chrysler, Ford, Nissan and Hyundai all
reported double-digit gains on Thursday, compared to a year
ago.