A new report from the Labor Department revealed that the U.S. unemployment rate has experienced a significant one-month drop, reaching the lowest level since March 2009. According to the report, an increase in hiring in the month of November resulted in the unemployment rate falling to 8.6 percent.
Job Creation Adds 120,000 Jobs as Unemployment Rate Lowers
The department’s report, released on Friday, found that the job creation effort led to 120,000 new jobs in November. While this number was higher than the 110,000 jobs anticipated for the month, it was still lower than the 150,000 ideal job creation rate that should be added each month to keep up with population growth.
This is why economists predicted the unemployment rate would hold steady at 9 percent. However, the report found that the combination of added jobs and an increased number of people returning to the workforce last month contributed to the reduced unemployment rate.
Another contributor to the unemployment rate drop was due to job creation growth from September and October being actually stronger than originally reported. The department found that an additional 72,000 jobs were added during those months combined.
Will Job Creation Last into 2012?
While the significant drop in the unemployment rate is probably a huge relief for lawmakers, they still have a huge task ahead of them, which is to agree on a jobs plan that will not only present job creation opportunities in the New Year, but also extend unemployment benefits for jobless workers who will lose funds starting in January.
The Obama administration has attempted to get the full $447 billion jobs plan passed over the past few months, but has had little success. Lawmakers have only managed to pass one piece of the bill; legislation signed into law by Obama on Nov. 21 that would create tax breaks for companies that hire unemployed veterans.
If legislation isn’t passed to address the unemployment benefits by the end of the year, 1.8 million jobless workers will lose their benefits by the end of January, an additional 4.2 million will lose theirs sometime next year and jobless Americans may still be forced to struggle with low job creation.
