The U.S. economy has strengthened, but not enough for the government to pare down its bond-buying program, according to the latest Fed minutes. In late 2010, investments rose and the job market improved -- but the housing market remained depressed.
Economists generally expect employers to steadily add more workers in 2011, perhaps as many as 250,000 a month by year-end. However, with so many long-term unemployed returning to the market, the jobless rate could still outpace those new positions.
If the stock market reflected the entire economy, happy days would surely be here again. But, alas, it reflects just the profit potential of public companies. And for millions of unemployed Americans, that's proving to be no help at all.
Retailers and shipping companies are adding fewer new jobs than they did a year ago. One reason: employers began shopping for seasonal workers earlier than usual, boosting hiring in October. But if holiday retail sales hold up, it could equal more hiring in December.
Forget Christmas trees and fancy presents, what millions of Americans want this year is a job. As it is, nearly 2 million Americans are scheduled to lose unemployment benefits before Christmas. Unless Congress issues a last-minute reprieve, some of the jobless will get cut off from federal aid as early as Wednesday.
Come the end of November, some 2 million jobless workers won't be able to rely on their unemployment check unless Congress again extends the aid. But with the GOP regaining the House, the odds of that extension just got a lot longer.
Just call this week%u2019s labor report a wash: Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped 13,000 to 462,000, but continuing claims plunged another 112,000, and the trend in state-level claims continues to provide evidence that the period of layoffs is subsiding.
When DailyFinance first met Candido Gonzalez last December for our "New Homeless" report, the New Yorker had been laid off for two years from his job of 19 years -- and living at the Bowery Mission. Today, the father of two finally has a job and a new outlook.
The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, because the private sector hired only 64,000 workers while governments cut 159,000. The jobless rate remains 9.6%. Minus the usual boosts from housing and consumers, the U.S. still lacks a catalyst for new jobs.
Data from the IRS shows that 2,840 households reporting at least $1 million in income on their tax returns that year also collected a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008.
