Ravi
Diamond Member
Unemployment drops to 8.6%
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The unemployment rate had been expected to hold at 9 percent. It last dropped by 0.4 percentage point in January.
"The really good news is that employment has grown for four months running -- in large steps. There was a solid increase in private employment. Everything there looks steady, but clearly healthy and positive," said Pierre Ellis, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.
However, retail accounted for more than a third all new private sector jobs in November.
U.S. stock index futures added gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices briefly extended losses and interest rate futures held steady. The dollar extended gains versus the yen.
The report is unlikely to take much pressure off President Barack Obama, whose economic stewardship will face the judgment of voters next November. The outlook for the U.S. economy is also being threatened by Europe's deepening financial crisis.
The report could temper the appetite among some Federal Reserve officials to ease monetary policy further.
In forecasts released earlier this month, the Fed said the jobless rate would likely average 9 percent to 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter. It did not expect it to drop to an 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent range until late next year.
Data ranging from manufacturing to retail sales suggest the growth pace could top 3 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to China, where growth is cooling and the euro zone, which many economists believe is already in recession.
While the economy's growth pace appears to have accelerated from the third quarter's 2 percent annual rate, unemployment remains too high.
At the same time, U.S. fiscal policy is set to tighten in the new year, even if lawmakers extend a payroll tax cut.
Taken together, some analysts believe the headwinds facing the U.S. economy will lead the Fed to ease monetary policy further by buying more bonds.
"We still have a very long way to go. I would favor the Fed going for a third round of quantitative easing," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "It's the only powerful tool left, even though it's losing some of its bang."
Analysts say the economy needs to create at least 125,000 jobs every month just to keep the unemployment rate steady.
But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
NFP Prints At 120K, Below Expectations Of 125K, Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.6% on Expectations of 9.0%. And for those wondering how it is possible to have such a major drop in the unemployment rate, here it is: Labor Force Participation down from 64.2% to 64.0% as ever more people leave the work force once again.
NFP Prints At 120K, Below Expectations Of 125K, Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.6% | ZeroHedgeNFP Prints At 120K, Below Expectations Of 125K, Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.6% on Expectations of 9.0%. And for those wondering how it is possible to have such a major drop in the unemployment rate, here it is: Labor Force Participation down from 64.2% to 64.0% as ever more people leave the work force once again.
Three threads on this already and the number dropped only because for every new hire, 3 people gave up looking for work.
You call that Progress?
Unemployment drops to 8.6%
.. Plus a lot of people got jobs for the Christmas season.. So I would not be so happy about those numbers until Christmas is over..http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/01/news/economy/unemployment_benefits/index.htm?iid=SF_E_RiverThe number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose again last week to their highest level in a month.
There were 402,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Nov. 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was up 6,000 from the week before and marked the highest level since the week of Oct. 22.
Unemployment drops to 8.6%
Unemployment drops to 8.6%
Unemployment drops to 8.6%
Unemployment drops to 8.6%