The Bureau of Labor Statistics came out with its employment report for December 2011 today. The report states that 200,000 people were hired last month, up from 100,000 hired in November (both numbers are preliminary). In addition, the unemployment rate moved to 8.5 percent, down from 8.7 percent in November. (See accompanying charts.)
These numbers are viewed by some as showing improvement in the nation’s labor situation. The 12-month moving average for new hires is the highest it has been since 2007, while the 12-month moving average for unemployment has just moved below 9 percent.
Meanwhile, the labor participation rate — the percentage of the U.S. population age 16 and over that is in the labor force — remained at 64.0 percent, the same rate as in November. The labor participation rate has fallen over the past 11 years. It was 67.2 percent in January 2001, and stood at 66.0 percent as recently as October 2008, while the 12-month moving average currently stands at roughly 64.2 percent.
The administration of President Barack Obama touted the numbers, saying that they were a sign of progress, but also an indication that more needed to be done by the government in order to spur job growth. Alan B. Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said, “It is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007.”
In September 2011, President Obama introduced a collection of legislative proposals — entitled “The American Jobs Act” — that he argued would prompt an increase in the rate of job growth. Congress has rejected the proposal as a whole, although portions of it — such as a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut — have been passed and signed into law. The payroll tax cut extension is set to expire next month, and a full-year extension of the cut has become an issue of contention between President Obama and Congress.
According to the BLS data, the U.S. economy created a net total of 1.64 million jobs in 2011, 57 percent more than the 940,000 net total of jobs created in 2010. The day before the release of the BLS employment data, a different report — the National Employment Report released by ADP, a payroll processing company — reported that 325,000 jobs were created in December 2011.