Dismal Jobs Report: No End in Sight for Economic Woes

Friday, 07 Jan 2011 01:07 PM

By Greg Brown

A deceptively dismal jobs report, combined with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s acknowledgement that it might be another five years before hiring fully recovers, put the final nail in the coffin Friday on the Obama administration’s claim that nearly $1 trillion in stimulus spending has rescued the economy.

Although the headline number is impressive, with unemployment falling from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent, the number of new jobs created was a big disappointment and far lower than private forecasters had predicted only days ago.

The Labor Department reported just 103,000 new jobs in December, about half the level projected in private consensus forecasts. An earlier report from private payroll company ADP had suggested that hiring might approach the 300,000 mark.

“We’re just not getting the jobs yet. I was really disappointed with these numbers. I was expecting a pretty big number in terms of job creation,â€