St Louis Mortgage Blog

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News:  So much for "job creation"

Labor Department data showed that US employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December, even though analysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to be unchanged last month and the unemployment rate to edge up to 10.1 percent. 

For the whole of 2009, the economy shed 4.2 million jobs, the department said.  Still the job market continued to show broad improvements last month, with a number of sectors showing gains. 

Professional and business services added 50,000 positions, while education and health services increased payrolls by 35,000. Temporary help employment rose by 47,000. 

Manufacturing payrolls fell 27,000 after dropping 35,000 in November. The construction sector lost 53,000 jobs, while the service-providing sector shed only 4,000 workers. 

The average workweek was unchanged at 33.2 hours, while average hourly earnings increased by $18.80 from $18.77 in November. 

Unemployment remains the Achilles heel of the economic recovery that started in the third qu arter of 2009 following the worst recession in 70 years.

Creating jobs is critical to sustaining the economic recovery when government stimulus fades. It's also critical to Democratic ambitions.

Obama's popularity has steadily fallen, knocking his approval ratings down to around 50 percent.  This could dim the election prospects for his Democratic Party in the November congressional elections.