Unemployment rate in us dips to 8.5% in december

Since jobs drive the housing market, the U.S. real estate sector received a little good news today. The unemployment rate continued to slowly decline in December.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining.

Both the number of unemployed persons (13.1 million) and the unemployment rate (8.5 percent) continued to trend down in December. The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage point since August.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men decreased to 8.0 percent in December. The jobless rates for adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (23.1 percent), whites (7.5 percent), blacks (15.8 percent), and Hispanics (11.0 percent) showed little Change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted. 

Source: WorldPropertyChannel.com