Unemployment Drops No Thanks to the Obama Administration

The Hill reports unemployment dropped to 10% from 10.2% in November as the economy shed 11,000 jobs.  This makes November's losses the lowest since the recession began.  Losses in the construction, manufacturing and information industries were offset by seasonal hiring, increases in temporary jobs and new hiring in health care:

Unemployment dipped to 10 percent last month, according to the Department of Labor, as job losses in the  construction, manufacturing and information industries were offset by job gains in temporary help services and healthcare. Labor said the 11,000 job losses meant payroll employment was "essentially unchanged" for the month.

In short, holiday hiring has picked up some of the slack and health care has been the only industry adding jobs through this economic slump.  Heaven forbid the government should leave well enough alone and restrain itself from taking over this industry.

No doubt you will hear the administration lauding this as proof of their economic intervention.  The administration should be grateful but not self-congratulatory, a point made by Jim Geraghty at NRO:

However, if you hear any fool on the left contending that the Obama administration can be credited with turning the economy around, the BLS release gives us a lot of reasons to point out that our economy has steadily deteriorated during this year: "Last month, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose by 293,000 to 5.9 million. The percentage of unemployed persons jobless for 27 weeks or more increased by 2.7 percentage points to 38.3 percent."

Also note that "construction employment declined by 27,000 over the month." Every month since the stimulus passed, employment in the construction field has dropped, confirming the president's admission that the "shovel ready" slogan of the stimulus package was bunk.

Although this number is likely to go back up in 2010, at least those who are seeking work have had some relief through the holidays.  

H/T: Memeorandum