The latest data continue to show just how deeply ingrained the Great Recession is in the economy.
In spite of massive, multi-billion dollar deficit spending by the federal government, job growth is virtually non-existent and well below the rate of population growth of people entering the workforce, according to year end statistics.
In December, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4% of a percentage point to 9.4%, and nonfarm payroll employment increased by a mere 103,000. More than 14.5 million people are out of work. Official statistics drastically understate the actual number of unemployed or under employed people in the United States. It appears there is no end in sight to massive unemployment, decreased tax revenues and record breaking deficit spending.
There are fewer people in the U.S. labor force now than before the recession started – despite working-age population growth of about 4 million since it officially began in 2008.
In December 2010, employment increased in leisure and hospitality, and in health care – areas where it is difficult for multinational corporations to move jobs offshore, but was little changed in other major industries, according to Keith Hall, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee to the new 112th Congress Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the Fed will proceed with printing money to buy $600 billion worth of government bonds in an attempt to keep a modest and thus far jobless recovery going.
About 2.6 million persons were “marginally attached” to the labor force in December, unchanged from year earlier.
These forgotten Americans were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the previous 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 1.3 million discouraged workers in December, an increase of 389,000 from December 2009.
The latest data continue to show just how deeply ingrained the Great Recession is in the economy, with employers reluctant to add jobs, even though Gross Domestic Product is growing again, albeit slowly.
