Unemployment falls to lowest rate in three years
Sometimes, it seems like we only write posts for our bankruptcy blog when there is bad news to share. Well, that is not the case today. After the release of a new employment report, it seems that the job market may, finally, be turning itself around.
According to that report, there were about 243,000 new jobs added in Georgia and throughout the United States in January. This increase brought the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent, which is the lowest it has been since February of 2009. With the jobs added, the number of unemployed Americans dropped to 12.8 million, which is also a three-year low.
The job report also contained an upward revision of employment numbers for November and December, stating that there were 60,000 more jobs added than had originally been reported.
What makes this report the most encouraging is the fact that there were job gains in a variety of different fields, including manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services. In sum, there were 257,000 jobs created in the private sector.
In addition, the government’s recent productivity report indicated a slowdown in productivity growth. This could signal an impending increase in hiring, analysts say.
However, there is still some bad news. The number of people who are under-employed, meaning people who are working part-time because they can’t get a full-time job, is holding steady above 15 percent. And nearly half of the 12.8 million who are unemployed have been without a job for 27 weeks or more.
There were also 14,000 government jobs eliminated in January. In the last year, there have been more than 275,000 people have been laid off from government positions.
Source: CBS News, “January jobs: Finally, a great report,” Jill Schlesinger, Feb. 3, 2012
