Employment picture awful despite slight December jobs gain

It passed for "good news" last week when the U.S. unemployment rate dropped from a sky-high 8.7 percent in November to a still alarmingly high 8.5 percent in December. But while the report was more positive than negative, it was tempered by not-so-good news.

For one thing, that seeming improvement reflects not only some hiring in December but also the fact that tens of thousands of the jobs supposedly created in November actually weren't, according to updated federal figures. In other words, the December improvement looks significant in part because job creation was actually considerably smaller in November than first thought.

Also, a good deal of the hiring in December was concentrated in very likely temporary positions related to the Christmas shopping season. Efforts by the Labor Department to account for such factors are inadequate. The Associated Press noted, for example, that increased hiring of messengers and couriers might be related to an increase in holiday-related online shopping, possibly skewing the figures.

What's more, the actual size of the workforce shrank in December, as more people apparently gave up their fruitless attempts to find jobs. The official unemployment rate doesn't include people who have thrown in the towel. In addition, more than 8 million Americans who need full-time work can find only part-time.

Adding up the "officially" unemployed, those who have stopped looking and those who can get only part-time jobs though they need full-time, the "underemployment" rate is at a painfully high 15.2 percent.

The job creation noted in the latest unemployment report is clearly welcome. But the U.S. economic recovery is proceeding at a glacial pace that is leaving far too many Americans in extremely tough circumstances.

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