My New Blog

Employment may be on the road to recovery with the majority of markets showing signs of growth. Job creation is critical for a sustained economic and housing recovery as it boosts confidence to make large purchases, and it undermines the factors that cause delinquency and foreclosures.

December 2011 Highlights

Unemployment
• The U.S. unemployment rate ended 2011 at 8.5%, down from 8.7% in November and 9.4% at the end of 2010.
• The overwhelming majority of states saw the same improvements. 37 states and DC saw the unemployment rate improve in December; an additional 10 states saw no increase. From one month ago, Alabama and Michigan had the biggest improvements, each seeing more than a 0.5% drop in the unemployment rate.
• Since December one year ago, 46 states have had an improvement in the unemployment rate. Nevada—now at 12.6% from 14.9%—had the largest improvement in this period, followed by Florida and New Mexico, each with improvements of at least 2%.
• In November, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota had the lowest unemployment rates—all under 5%. At the same time, 4 states and DC had double-digit unemployment rates, compared with 7 plus DC in October.

Payroll Jobs
• 46 states and the DC had positive job growth in the last year, and 25 states and DC had positive job growth in December, a time when net growth was about 200,000 jobs for the nation. The average change among states was less than in previous months.
• The greatest job growth in December was in South Dakota, while Nevada had the largest job decline (both as a share of previous payrolls).
• While unemployment rates plummeted in December, part of the story was a slackening labor force. Going forward, increasing labor force participation may keep the unemployment rate high or even push it up slightly despite the creation of new jobs.

N.A.R.