The top three issues in the upcoming 2012 election are jobs, jobs and jobs. President Obama would be fighting against strong historical precedent trying to win reelection with unemployment staying above 9%.
Over the last several months, unemployment has stubbornly refused to budge down. At 8:30 EST this morning the U.S. Department of Labor reported a dramatic drop in unemployment. Expectations were that unemployment would stay at 9%. The number dropped dramatically to 8.6%. Such dramatic drops are rare.
ADP had given us on Wednesday forewarning of the possible strong employment number. ADP is one of the largest payroll processors in the United States, and uses the payroll data it has from private employers to compile private sector jobs data. On Wednesday, ADP reported that the private sector added 206,000 jobs in November. This was way up from October’s job number of 130,000 and the largest gain in 11 months.
Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm, recently reported that the number of planned layoffs in November 2011 was 42,474, down 13% from November 2010.
The dramatic fall in the unemployment rate is remarkable considering federal, state, and local governments lost 20,000 jobs. Also remarkable is that the number of part-time workers dropped by 378,000 over the month. It is believed that individuals work part-time because their hours have been cut or they were not able to find a full time job…Read More at Forbes ..
