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Job Growth Sags and Unemployment Jumps in December
Jobs Byte by Dean Baker
For Immediate Release: January 4, 2008
Contact: Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115
Health care and restaurants accounted for 85.5 percent of job growth since September.
The unemployment rate jumped by 0.3 percentage
points to 5.0 percent in December, as employment growth virtually came
to a halt. The 5.0 percent rate is the highest since November of 2005.
However, the rate of increase was even more disturbing. This is the
sharpest jump in the unemployment rate since a 0.3 pp rise in the wake
of the September 11th attacks in 2001.
The rise in unemployment hit blacks and Hispanic workers especially
hard, with both groups seeing a rise of 0.6 pp in their unemployment
rates to 9.0 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively. There continues to
be an unusual age pattern to employment trends. Employment for workers
over age 55 rose modestly, while reportedly falling by 436,000 for
workers under age 55. While this December decline is probably an
anomaly, employment for workers under age 55 has fallen by 625,000 over
the last year.
Other data in the household survey is consistent with the picture of
labor market weakness. The share of unemployment attributable to people
who voluntarily quit their jobs, a measure of workers’ confidence in
the labor market, fell to 10.4 percent, the lowest level since October
of 2004. There was an increase of 124,000 in the number of workers
involuntarily employed part-time, the second consecutive large
increase, and a 32 percent jump in the number of discouraged workers
from year ago levels.
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