On Friday the Labor Department announced a surprising shift in unemployment trends. According to the November job report, the U.S. economy lost 11,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 10% from 10.2%. The New York Times reports that this is the strongest employment report since the recession began almost two years ago. These numbers signify that the economy essentially stopped shedding jobs last month.
Although the rate of job loss has been in decline for several months, many economists were still surprised by November’s unemployment numbers, which could indicate a turning point in the economic recovery. Nonetheless, 15.4 million Americans are still unemployed. The New York Times interviewed Allen L. Sinai, founder of the research firm Decision Economics. Sinai’s response to the November job report: “It is like a patient after having collapsed with a heart attack sitting up and taking a breath—nothing more than that. Things are getting better, but a one-month respite, frankly, means nothing in the context of the worst labor market ever seen since the 1930s.”
Whether or not November’s unemployment figures are the start of a true turn-around remains to be seen, but the Obama administration is being proactive in its fight against joblessness. On Thursday Obama convened a forum at the White House to address the issue. The forum engaged business executives, economists, labor experts, and others in a conversation about what can be done to create more jobs for American citizens. The president told participants that he would announce new ideas for job creation sometime in the next week.
You can read the entire article from The New York Times online HERE.
From the Beacon’s Job Talk: GO! Network
December 18th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Love the blog! Found it on Bing I have bookmarked it thank you for the tips. It been a long year and many of us are looking for Employment
January 27th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
19 months into recession and it seems to me that we’re still light years from recovery. Granted, Bernanke and the big boys are saying the economy is getting better but it sure doesn’t feel that way on main street.