Jobs Report - 85,000 Jobs Lost

The labor report came out today showing that 85,000 jobs were lost in December.  This was an unexpected loss.  Many analysts were actually predicting that this report would show jobs were added not lost in December.  Many analysts now say that the number would have been higher if more people were looking for work.  Many people who have not been able to find jobs have taken themselves out the marketplace by going back to school and other things like that.  This jobs report keeps the unemployment rate at 10%.

The lack of jobs continues to be the main hurdle to an economic recovery.  Although despite job losses and unemployment, retail consumer sales seem to still be creeping back up.

Even with the total job losses, some sectors actually added jobs.  The professional and business services sector added 50,000 jobs and health services rose 35,000.  The manufacturing and construction sectors have been hit the most with losses of 27,000 jobs and 53,000 jobs respectively.