Unemployment Rate Goes Down! How Can it Be?

Unemployment falls in November

Some people actually got jobs in November!

Numbers on unemployment for November have been released, and it turns out that unemployment actually went down last month, falling from 10.2 percent in October to 10 percent for November.

Of course, this might be just because of seasonal employment, but I suppose we have to take whatever we can get. It’s widely known that optimism will help the economy more than anything, because confident consumers spend more money. People are also much more likely to get payday cash advances if they know their jobs are secure.

The bad news

Unfortunately, while the overall number of unemployed Americans fell in November, the number of Americans who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks (more than six months) increased. Luckily the legislation passed last month that extends unemployment benefits should help some of these people out.

Usually, unemployment rises in January as people who had taken temporary jobs over the holidays go back to being unemployed. Also, many companies do layoffs in January after they see their budgets for the previous year.

Not black and white

Of course, though the falling unemployment rate is indeed great news, it doesn’t give us cut and dry answers about where the economy is headed. This little upturn in employment could be simply circumstantial. Experts have been saying for months that unemployment would be one of the last economic factors to change after the recession ends. It’s surprising, therefore, to see a reduction in unemployment now, and it’s very possible that unemployment will go back up or possibly get worse in 2010.

The unemployment numbers have fluctuated a lot this year, but one thing is for sure: They’ve been bad, bad, bad. In December 2007, before the recession began, the national unemployment rate was only 4.9 percent, which is normal. Even at its new, lower rate, unemployment is still more than double that. Once more people start getting jobs, those people will start spending money. Of course, people need to spend money in order to create more jobs.