"It's good news against expectations, but that's about it"
- Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level since December 2008, while payrolls rose more than expected in November, a positive sign that the labour market in the world's biggest economy is finally on the path of recovery. The country added 146,000 jobs in November, as the economy seemingly shrugged off super storm Sandy. At the same time the overall unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7% of the workforce due to the decline in the size of the labour force. In the meanwhile, the average hourly earnings jumped to $23.63 from $23.59 in the prior month, while the median work week for all workers stood at 34.4 hours. The improvement in data does not reflect the true situation, as many people dropped out of the workforce, either due to retirement or because they just have given up looking for work.
"The pace of payroll growth is too slow to make much of a dent into the pool of unemployed, but it's steady and persistent," James Glassman, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said on Friday. "If you look into next year, there's a lot of reasons why we should be expecting better."
"It's good news against expectations, but that's about it," said Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research.
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