Labor Department releases data for December

The officials US unemployment rate is holding steady at 10%, according to December employment numbers released today by the Labor Department. The country lost 85,000 jobs, despite some expectations that the New Year would bring better news for the economy. Lauren Applebaum, a labor researcher at UCLA, says the unemployment rate that includes people who are working part time but want full time jobs and those who have given up looking for employment remained unchanged at 17.3%.

“However, many people have left the labor force – 661,000 people altogher have left the labor force and it is possible that some of those people are not being accounted for. Even that number, the 17.3% only includes people who have looked for a job in the past 12 months. So it is possible there are people who gave up looking for work more than 12 months ago and aren’t being included.”

Applebaum says the only job growth came in unskilled sectors – where pay is low and benefits are scarce.