U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To 9.4%
WASHINGTON (CBS4) - Florida's unemployment rate hasn't shown signs of edging lower in the past quarter, but newly released date from the U.S. Labor Department shows that the overall unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a point to 9.4 percent in December.
The only problem with the drop was that it wasn't powered solely by businesses creating more jobs. Instead, it was a combination of some people finding new jobs and many others simply giving up on their job search completely.
Still some job seekers are optimistic about the outlook.
Miami job seeker Angie Briceno said she feels like she's getting closer to getting back to work.
"I don't want to assume that things are going to be magically better tomorrow, but it's definitely a good sign,' she said.
But Jamie Ranieri said she never thought she would be one of the millions of Americans still looking for work.
"I left thinking it would be no problem finding another job," she said. "That's what I do…and I'm good at."
Ranieri said she was confident that she would find a new job so she quit her job for personal reasons.
"Had I know what I known today I probably would have stuck it out," she said.
But there are signs that the labor department is picking up.
The Labor Department reported that employers added a total of 103,000 jobs in December. While that was an improvement over November's total of 71,000; it was still far below the analysts expectations of 145,000 jobs gained.
"We have to see more and more private sector jobs grow faster," economic analyst Lackshman Achutan said.
That's because the economy needs to see an additional 125,000 job every month just to keep up with the population growth, and roughly 200,000 to take a bite out of unemployment.
"By the mid-year you'll look in the rear view mirror and you'll say, 'Ahh…there it is. The growth started again,' but it won't make you feel healed," Achutan said.
Through 2010, the nation added 1.1 million jobs, or roughly 94,000 jobs per month. Economists are forecasting hiring to pick up this year with some predicting a doubling of last year's total of jobs added, or possibly even more.
The national unemployment rate has stayed above 9 percent for the last 20 months. That's the longest streak of unemployment that high in history.
