Environmental Career Center – Helping people work for a better environment since 1980

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday (January 6) that employers added 200,000 jobs in December with the unemployment rate dropping to 8.5%.  That’s 50,000 more jobs than economists expected.  The unemployment rate averaged 8.9 percent last year, down from 9.6 percent the previous year.  November’s unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6 %  from a 2011 high of 9.2%.  Job gains occurred in retail, health care, transportation, warehousing,  mining and manufacturing.

Economists estimate that employers will add about 2.1 million jobs in 2012.  That compares to 1.6 million in 2011 and 940,000 in 2010.  125,000 are needed each month just to keep up with the growth in the potential labor force.    The economy typically needs to add 125,000 jobs each  month just to keep up with population growth.  Government employment changed little in December but was down by 280,000 in 2011.

The hiring gains cap a six-month period in which the economy generated 100,000 jobs or more each month. That hasn’t happened since April 2006.