Job creation rate is worst since '50s
The only bright spot was that the unemployment rate was unchanged. But even that is misleading because it excludes 191,000 jobless people who simply stopped looking for work and therefore are not counted by the government. They would have added another half-percent to the unemployment rate, economists said. The previous month, 390,000 people were excluded from the count.
"payrolls unexpectedly fell by 101,000 in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 6 percent, capping the worst two years for job creation since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s."
" Factories slashed 65,000 jobs, prompting the industry to declare that continued losses have "reached crisis proportions," said Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers."
" The total of unemployed workers rose to 8.6 million in December, up 82,000 from November, and 381,000 since October. The number of unemployed for at least 15 weeks climbed to 3.2 million, up 815,000 over the year."
" Manufacturers continued to contract, too, shedding 65,000 jobs in December. The sector lost 592,000 jobs last year and 2.4 million since April 1998."
The votes of 8.6 million unemployed Americans can change the outcome of a lot of future elections.