December Employment Results Optimistic
By: Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger
Photographer: George Whylie
Videographer: Maxine Nolan
The employment situation for December was reported today. As we are approaching the Presidential Election, optimistic results are key for President Obama.
The economy is continuing to heal and will need a push by extending the payroll tax cut and government continuing to provide emergency unemployment benefits through the end of 2012. We must also carry out the steps of the newly adopted American Jobs Act.
Payroll employment rose by 200,000 jobs for the month of December. The private sector increased by 212,000 jobs. Unemployment fell to the lowest level since February 2009, to 8.5%. This was caused by employment growth. Over the last 12 months, unemployment fell by 0.9 percentage points.
Private sector jobs have been added for 22 months straight which equates to 3.2 million payroll jobs. In 2011, net 1.9 million private sector jobs have been added, the most since 2005.
The sectors with increases in December were Transportation and Warehousing (+150,200), Health Care and Social Assistance (+28,700), Retail Trade (+27,900), Manufacturing (+23,000), Leisure and Hospitality (+21,000), Construction (+17,000). Local governments lost 14,000 jobs and state government employment reported no change.
The big takeaway today is that we must continue to try and put more Americans back to work in order to stimulate the economic growth.
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