A Jobs Sigh of Relief
The November jobs report was greeted yesterday with smiles and sighs of relief, which speaks volumes about how rotten the job market has been for a long time. Only 11,000 lost jobs! Praise heaven.
The report is hopeful if not yet happy news, in that it shows employment finally catching up with the economic recovery that has been building since the summer. Economic expansions always lead to some job creation, especially when the downturn and layoffs have been as steep as what the U.S. has endured in the last year.
The surprise so far has been how long it has taken the job market to come around—surprising especially to a White House that predicted a jobless rate peak of 8% if the $787 billion spending stimulus passed. President Obama called yesterday’s report the best since 2007, which is true but is also like saying that this is the most tasteful season so far of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
The report’s details suggest that job growth will finally arrive in future months. The average work week climbed to 33.2 hours from 33.0, which means more workers are being hired back to full-time status. The jobless rate—which is determined by the household survey, rather than the business establishment survey—fell to 10%, from 10.2%. And the household survey, which measures more small businesses and home entrepreneurs, showed a gain of 227,000 jobs. In the early stages of the 2003 recovery, this measure proved to be a better indicator of future job-market strength than did the lagging establishment report.