Job gains in U.S. bolsters confidence about 2015

Japan is still looking better by comparison

@Farmboy I'm not sure that is objectively true. The US may have high income inequality, but Japan is not exactly equal and I've never trusted it's unemployment figures. If a stable employer is what you are looking for, Japan is probably not a good choice considering the world economy.

And one reason the unemployment rate fell last month had nothing to do with more hiring: Many of the jobless gave up looking for work and so were no longer counted as unemployed.

"Phew, unemployment is declining", said relieved policy makers.

Japan is still looking better by comparison,

Nonsense. Japan will likely be flat or have minimal growth next year, at best, compared to the U.S. projection of 3%. And, Japan's low unemployment rate is at best deceptive, since it includes a large percentage of younger folks who are only working on contracts or part-time. Finally, with wages being flat, and the yen at a recent low -- versus the dollar at recent highs -- the average Japanese family will continue to have to keep spending large amounts of their budgets on things like imported food, so discretionary income/spending will remain relatively weak.

Think it would be far more useful if US job figures noted the number of permanent positions and the number of crappy contract and part time positions "created".People need decent paying secure jobs not the usual crap on offer which they have to take in desperation.

Back on topic please.

@cardsfan

I don't know... my family eat rice, fish and. vegetables. All produced in Japan, I believe.

The unemployment numbers don't include those who ran out of unemployment, those who lost jobs and weren't eligible for unemployment, high school and college graduates who have never had a job, and illegal immigrants who aren't working. The government just wants the numbers to look good as they prepare for amnesty.

Most economists forecast that the U.S. economy will expand more than 3% this year. If it does, 2015 would mark the first time in a decade that growth has reached that level for a calendar year.

Most economists made the same prediction for Japan last year, yet Japan is now in recession, right?

The unemployment rate is now near the 5.2% to 5.5% range that the Federal Reserve considers consistent with a healthy economy — one reason the Fed has been expected to raise interest rates from record lows by midyear.

This rate is deceptive, the formula is reworked each year to make the number look lower than it really is. It counts only people who are applying for uneployment benefits. The real number to look at is the labor participation rate, which shows the percentage of people who are actually working. This number remains at a multi-decade low, and indicates that a full one-third or Americans are not working.

Spending at retailers and restaurants rose in November by the most in eight months, an early sign that Americans are spending some of the savings they are enjoying from gas-pump prices.

Exactly. Any improvement in the American economy is based entirely on the decrease in energy prices, not by monetary easing (the benefits of which have gone entirely to the stock market) or other government policy. America's economy is oil-driven, and any increase (or decrease) in the price of oil touches every household immediately. Obama cannot take one iota of credit for any recent improvement in the American economy, it is entirely the result of lower oil prices.