Unemployment Drops, 220,000 Jobs Added

• January 6th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The economic news that has people smiling today is that the country added 220,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5 percent, its lowest level in three years.

When the unemployment rate fell in November, a number of analysts noted that the drop was as much a result of people leaving the labor force as it was folks finding new jobs. The optimistic news being reported today, however, is more a result of the latter.

From The Wall Street Journal:

In December, the household [unemployment] survey showed the number of people employed rose by 176,000, as the population increased by 143,000 over the month. So even though the labor force — the number of people working or looking for work — fell by 50,000, job growth is outpacing the increase in the population.

Coupled with today’s good news, is a report that the U-6 jobs measure — a tool that gauges the number of people working part time and those marginally attached to the labor force — fell to 15.2 percent in December from 15.6 percent in November. In late December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate in DC proper dipped to 10.6 percent from 11 percent in October.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/good_news_unemployment_drops_220000_jobs_added/4872.