After months of reports suggesting that the U.S. labor market might never change, the jobless rate falls to 8.5% - In December, the U.S. added 200,000 jobs -- beating economists' expectations

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Huffington Post
U.S. Economy Adds 200,000 Jobs In December As Jobless Rate Falls To 8.5 Percent
By Lila Shapiro
January 6, 2012


U.S. Economy Adds 200,000 Jobs In December As Jobless Rate Falls To 8.5 Percent


Some excerpts :

Although part of the drop in the unemployment rate came from some 50,000 Americans leaving the labor force -- once a person gives up looking for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed -- most of it came from real progress: more jobs. And while many economists say that 300 or 400 thousand jobs per month, month after month, are needed to dig America out of the massive jobs hole the recession created, on Friday morning, labor market watchers were celebrating.

"I think it's a very positive report, unambiguously," said Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody's Analytics. "Generally you have a lot of cross currents, but this suggests that the job market and the economy are gaining broader traction."

Average hourly earnings also rose by 4 cents, while the average workweek ticked up by .1 hours to 34.4.

"I thought the numbers were pretty darn good," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for The PNC Financial Services Group. Hoffman sees this report as the resumption of a trend in growth that began at the beginning of last year, but flattened out over the summer, slowed by rising oil prices, uncertainty in Washington, the tsunami in Japan and other threatening global forces.

"All of these new signs send the same positive signal about a real improvement." Hoffman said.

Job gains came in retail, a steady winner in the post-recession days, along with manufacturing, mining, health care and leisure and hospitality. Government employment, which shed 280,000 positions over the past year, slowed its losses to 12,000 fewer positions in December.

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