An increase in November payrolls probably pushed U.S. job gains past the 1 million mark for the year as the world’s largest economy strengthened heading into 2011, economists said before a report today.
Employment increased by 150,000 last month, according to the median forecast of 87 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, bringing the rise so far this year to 1.02 million. The advances haven’t been large enough to bring down unemployment, which held at 9.6 percent, according to the survey median.
Another report may show service industries, which account for almost 90 percent of the economy, grew last month at the fastest pace since May as more jobs and rising wages boosted holiday sales at retailers like J.C. Penney Co. and Gap Inc. At the same time, the Federal Reserve is concerned joblessness will be slow to retreat, explaining why policy makers announced a new round of monetary stimulus.
conomists’ projections for the jobless rate, which has been at 9.6 percent since August, varied from 9.4 percent to 9.7 percent. November would be the 16th month of joblessness at 9.5 percent or higher, the longest such stretch since records began in 1948.
Job losses in 2008 and 2009 totaled 8.4 million, pushing unemployment up from 5 percent in December 2007, as the worst recession since the 1930s took its toll.
Fed policy makers last month began buying Treasury securities as part of a plan to pump as much as $600 billion more into the financial system in a bid to keep interest rates low and spur growth. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has been among those saying the recovery has been too slow, keeping unemployment too high and leading to a deceleration in inflation that raises the risk of deflation, or sustained and damaging price decreases.
