The U.S. economy has created many jobs well below expectations in December, but the unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level in over a year and a half, to 9.4%, official statistics show, published Friday, January 7. Analysts had forecast a decline much less steeply, by 0.1 percentage points, according to their median forecast.This rate of 9.4% is the lowest in the U.S. since May 2009. The fall in unemployment has occurred despite job creation apparently insufficient. The ministry said the U.S. economy created 103,000 jobs more than it has destroyed this month. This reflects a net increase hiring by 45% compared to November, but analysts were expecting a figure of 150,000, the threshold at which it can generally begin to expect a decline in unemployment.
In December, "Employment rose in the leisure sector, housing and health, but there was little change in others," the report said the ministry. The figures of unemployment and job creation are obtained from two different studies, the first on a sample of households, the second on a sample of firms, which explains some inconsistencies between the two figures, s 'erase generally from one month to another.
The ministry said it had conducted a review of its seasonal factors for the household survey in December, but not for the survey of businesses. Over the full year 2010, the report states that the U.S. has returned 1.1 million jobs. The country lost 8.5 million in 2008 and 2009, leaving a sense of distance still to go until full recovery of the economy, especially since unemployment is still as ever long above 9.4% since 1948 at least.
The report also indicates that the average number of hours worked in the U.S. private sector has remained stable in December, to 34.3 hours. Due to an increase in average hourly earnings, average weekly earnings rose 0.1%, which is consistent with analysts' forecasts.
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