Jobless No More

“The worst U.S. employment slump in the post-World War II era may have almost ended in December, signaling the recovery will not be jobless much longer, economists said before reports this week. Payrolls probably fell by 1,000 workers last month, the smallest drop since the recession began two years ago, according to the median of 58 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of a Jan. 8 Labor Department report. The unemployment rate may have climbed to 10.1 percent from 10 percent. Stimulus-driven gains in global demand mean American companies may need to start boosting payrolls in 2010 after eliminating 7.2 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Manufacturers are leading the rebound in growth as a pickup in orders and rising exports, combined with a record reduction in inventories, spurs production. ‘Businesses are starting to come out of their shells,’ said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. ‘We have turned the corner convincingly and have started on a path toward growth.’ The declines in payrolls the last two years have been the biggest as a percentage of all jobs since 1944-45.”