sunshine and rope swings

12.04.2004

Far Fewer Jobs Were Added in November Than Forecast
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3

- The economy added 112,000 payroll jobs in November, far fewer than the month before and not enough to keep up with average increases in the adult population, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The gain was well below Wall Street forecasts, and employment in manufacturing was flat for the third consecutive month. The modest pace of job creation, along with a small decline in the number of hours worked, reinforced the image of an economy that is expanding more slowly and in which companies remain skittish about hiring more people.

Many analysts were stunned last month when the government reported a spectacular jump of 337,000 jobs in October. But on Friday, many said that the October jump was mostly an aberration in the more enduring trend of slow growth in jobs and wages.

The report cast a shadow on expectations for holiday spending this year, given that consumers face higher gasoline and heating prices without much rise in real personal income.

Three years after the last recession officially ended in November 2001, the rebound in jobs remains slower than in any previous economic recovery since World War II.

Unemployment inched down by 0.1 percentage point last month, to 5.4 percent, but the United States still has at least 200,000 fewer jobs than it did before the recession began. At the same time, the adult population has grown by about four million.

for more, see www.nytimes.com

----- let's hope things are looking better before i'm done with my m.s. next december....you people who are already hooked-up with good jobs, send the love my way because the job mkt will get nothing but tighter over the next few years (even if the economy gets better substantially at any point, there are so many people staying in school and getting higher degrees to ride out the ugliness that it's going to be hard to compete). :(

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