Unemployment Rates Drop To 7.7%, Economy Added 146K Jobs In November

According to ABC News:

The economy generated 146,000 new jobs in November and unemployment fell to 7.7 percent, better than economists expected, despite worries that superstorm Sandy and the looming fiscal cliff would dampen hiring.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics also dialed back job gains for the previous two months. But it said that Sandy did not significantly affect jobs. In October, the U.S. economy added 138,000 jobs, not the 171,000 reported before the election. The jobs added in September were also revised downward to 132,000 from 148,000.

Stephen Bronars, chief economist with Welch Consulting in Washington, D.C., said many economists believed Superstorm Sandy would have influenced Friday’s jobs report after causing devastation especially in the Caribbean and U.S. Northeast.

Businesses and residents in the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which produce about one-eighth of U.S. GDP, experienced prolonged power outages and major infrastructure damage.

Bronars said, “Sandy hit the U.S. at a place where it inflicted close to the maximal possible economic damage from a storm that size.”

New Jersey and New York were the hardest hit, with at least 120,000 jobs lost, at least temporarily, in those two states.

On Wednesday, payroll provider ADP, reported that private companies added 118,000 jobs in November, down from 157,000 in October. However, ADP includes in its figures people as employed if they remain on payroll, whereas the Labor Department’s includes workers as employed if they are paid.

Discuss….