Jobs Report Disappoints; December Payrolls Down 85,000

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Job losses in December were worse than economists had expected, though revised statistics from November showed a slight tick up in payrolls for that month.

The U.S. Labor Department revealed that non-farm payrolls declined by 85,000 in December.

Economists had generally expected a more modest decline for the month, with some predicting that December would see some job growth.

Results for November were revised higher, with statistics now showing a gain for the month of 4,000. When data was originally released last month, November was estimated to have seen a decline of 11,000 jobs.

October's results were revised to a decline of 127,000.

The unemployment rate for December came in at 10.0%, holding steady with November's level. Economists had generally expected the unemployment rate to tick up slightly.

For 2009 as a whole, 4.2 million jobs were lost. Since the recession began late in 2007, more than 7 million have been cut from U.S. payrolls.

Manufacturing payrolls declined by 27,000 in December, the latest data showed, while service jobs shrank by 4,000. Construction payrolls were down by 53,000.

The Labor Department said the average workweek held steady with November at 33.2 hours. Average hourly earnings ticked up to $18.80 in December from $18.74 in the previous month.

Earlier this week, Statistics released by payroll processor ADP showed that the private sector shed 84,000 jobs in December. This followed a revised drop of 145,000 the previous month.

Meanwhile, Thursday's weekly jobless claims data showed that the number of people filing for first-time unemployment claims came in at 434,000 for the week ended on January 2. This was up 1,000 from the previous week's revised total of 433,000.

Job losses in December were worse than economists had expected, though revised statistics from November showed a slight tick up in payrolls for that month. The U.S. Labor Department revealed that non-farm payrolls declined by 85,000 in December. Economists had generally expected a more modest decline for the month, with some predicting that December would see some job growth. Results for November were revised higher, with statistics now showing a gain for the month of 4,000. (Market News Provided by RTTNews)