WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's economy added 103,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% last month, its lowest level in 19 months.
But the job growth fell short of expectations based on a strengthening economy. And the drop in unemployment was partly because people stopped looking for work.
Private employers added a net total of 113,000 jobs last month and the government shed 10,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.
"It's a bit of a mixed bag," said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody's Analytics. Many analysts hoped to see larger job gains, and the drop in the unemployment rate is unlikely to be sustained, he said.
"The labor market ended last year with a bit of a thud," he said. "But I think things will get much better this year."
(Looking more closely at the Labor Dept. data, the total number of nonfarm, private sector American workers employed in December 2010 stood at 108.45 million. In December 2007, the number was 115.57 million. In December 2000, there were 111.68 million working. See chart below.–AdvisorOne.)
The economy has shown signs of steady improvement in recent weeks, leading many economists to expect more job creation. The Labor Department said Thursday that fewer people applied for unemployment benefits over the month than in any four-week period in more than two years. An increase in consumer spending made this past holiday season the best in four years.
There were positive signs in the December jobs report. Government revisions showed more people were hired in previous months than the government first estimated. The economy added 210,000 jobs in October, above the previous figure of 172,000. November's total was revised to 71,000, up from 39,000.
Over the past three months, the economy has added an average of 128,000 jobs. That's just enough to keep up with the population growth. Nearly double is generally needed to significantly reduce the unemployment rate.
But other factors can affect the unemployment rate, at least temporarily. One key reason for the drop was that the government no longer counts people as unemployed when they stop looking for work.
Fewer people said they were out of work last month. The number of unemployed fell by more than 500,000 to just under 14.5 million, the lowest since April 2009.
Still, the unemployment rate has topped 9% for 20 months, the longest such streak on record. And even with last year's job gains, the unemployment rate fell only from 9.7% to 9.4%.
