The 2009 job market in the U.S. ends with a thud, as the Labor Department reports much higher job
losses in December than expected.
In the report released earlier today, the Labor Department announced that employers unexpectedly
cut 85,000 jobs in December. While the unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent, the results
show that people are leaving the labor force rather than attempting to find a new job.
The news put a cap on a very bad year for job-seekers... one in which many of us felt the pain
of a layoff -- either to ourselves or someone close to us. Job losses for the entire year came to 4.2
million jobs, the most in one year since the government started tracking payrolls in 1939. In total,
the U.S. economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since the start of the recession in 2008.
The news also puts pressure on the government -- both the president and Congress -- to find ways
to help stimulate job growth and help businesses recover and grow.
In the one bit of positive news, November's labor market numbers were revised, showing that
the economy actually added 4,000 jobs rather than losing 11,000 as initially reported.
