- US ended year with a surge of hiring, adding 200,000 jobs; unemployment rate at 8.5 percent, Associated Press, January 6, 2012, Washington Post: “Four painful years after the Great Recession struck and wiped out 8.7 million jobs, the United States may finally be in an elusive pattern known as a virtuous cycle – an escalating loop of hiring and spending. The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years, and led economists to conclude that the improvement in the job market might just last…”
- U.S. economy gains steam as 200,000 jobs are added, By Shaila Dewan, January 6, 2012, New York Times: “Maybe it is time to start calling the glass half full. The United States added 200,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a robust number that came on the heels of a flurry of heartening economic news. Consumer confidence has lifted, factories have stepped up production and small businesses are showing signs of life. The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, its lowest level in nearly two years. It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy showed a net gain of more than 100,000 jobs – not enough to restore employment to prerecession levels but enough, perhaps, to cheer President Obama as he enters the election year…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty