http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/131823-jobless-rate-up-to-98-percent-economy-adds-39000-jobs
The jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent in November as the economy added a disappointing 39,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Forecasters had expected the economy to add as many as 150,000 jobs, and the November numbers are a steep fall from a month before, when the economy added 172,000 jobs.
If you'd like to read the full report, you can find it here:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
This is an ominous sign, I think. And we also received another ominous sign today, a warning that we could see a major sell-off in the market beginning in two weeks or so.
http://politics.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2010/12/2/delaying-tax-vote-could-crash-stock-market.html
Failure by Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts, especially locking in the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, will spark a stock market sell off starting December 15 as investors move to lock in gains at a lower rate than the 20 percent it would jump to next year, warn analysts. [See who gets the most money from the financial industry.]
While it is unclear how bad the sell off could be, it could wipe out the year's gains, they warn.
You see, the current rate is 15%, and unless Congress does something soon, it will rise to 20% at the beginning of the year. Starting in the not too distant future, some people will choose to sell their stock now in order to pay the lower rate for their profits.
So things aren't as rosy as they appear.
But I do have a final thought, here. What is it about November? I mean, last month we saw a gain of 172,000 jobs, so why did we only see 39,000 new jobs last month? Did something happen in November that we don't know about? Was a mistake made this month? Was a mistake made in previous months, and the actual number of jobs created in previous months was lower than claimed?
I don't know, and I wonder if we'll EVER know.
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