Jobless rate reveals economy's shaky stability
Lewis DiuguidShaky stability certainly describes the U.S. economy.
The jobless rate for December hung at 7.8 percent, which is about the same as it has been in the previous two months. That’s despite the screwiness in Congress in dealing with the fiscal cliff and the recession gripping Europe.
The Labor Department reports this morning that employers added 155,000 jobs last month. And why shouldn’t they have?
It was the Christmas shopping season — the big sprint for U.S. retailers to close out the year in the black — and they had to hire more people to do it.
To get out of the shaky territory, job growth has to push above 200,000 a month to cut into the unemployment numbers. Getting there in the first quarter of this year will be iffy.
But certainly there’s hope going into the summer vacation season.
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