LOC18:59
15:59 GMT
WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (KUNA) -- The US Labor Department on Friday reported that
the nation's unemployment rate fell last month to 9.4 percent from 9.8 percent
in November 2010.
The drop marked the lowest US jobless level in 19 months with a net total
of 103,000 jobs added in December. It also marked the biggest one-month
decline in the jobless rate since April 1998.
The US jobless rate hit a 27-year high of 10.1 percent in October 2009
during what has come to be known as the Great Recession.
While analysts said the latest figures represented a good step in the right
direction, they also noted that the growing US population means the economy
needs 100,000 new jobs each month just to absorb new workers and prevent the
unemployment rate from rising.
"The economic recovery that began a year and a half ago is continuing,
although, to date, at a pace that has been insufficient to reduce the rate of
unemployment significantly," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in
testimony before Congress on Friday.
Bernanke said it will take years for the unemployment rate to return to a
healthy level of about 5.5 percent. (end)
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KUNA 071859 Jan 11NNNN