The Obama Fix: Unemployment Sinks Below 10 Percent

After a brutal jobs report released yesterday that cast doubt on the strength of economic recovery, there was unexpected good news on the jobs front on Friday as the nation’s unemployment rate for last month fell below 10 percent to 9.7 percent. But companion numbers showed the massive impact of the “Great Recession” and how far the country’s job market must go to erase the millions of losses since 2007.

The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent, while employers shed 20,000 jobs, according to a report that offered hope the economy will add jobs soon.The unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

The department also revised its past employment estimates to show that job losses from the Great Recession have been much worse than previously stated. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the downturn began in December 2007, up from a previous figure of 7.2 million.

That’s the most jobs lost in any recession, as a percent of total employment, since World War II.

The figure for November was revised higher, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs. That was initially reported as a gain of 4,000.

Much of January’s report offers hope that employers are starting to reverse course and may start adding jobs soon. Aside from November’s gain, January’s job losses were the smallest since the recession began and are down from the huge loss of 779,000 jobs in January 2009.

While 20,000 jobs were still lost in January and the jobless figure hovers near double-digits, hitting a sub-10 number is an important milestone for the economy and for Americans who have been cringing for months as the unemployment rate crept upwards.

The news is especially welcome at the White House, where President Obama has been touting new jobs proposals and taking his message that jobs are the “number one” priority this year to the public. The drop in the jobless rate has nothing to do with the president’s decision to shift focus from health care to the economy, but it plays well to frustrated Americans.

The jobs numbers also allow the president and Democrats to squeeze Republicans as they mount opposition to a Senate jobs bill and other jobs proposals introduced by the president. While Obama and the Democrats can take credit for inching the unemployment rate back below the symbolic 10 percent mark, the jobs picture is still bad enough that the GOP takes a risk in voting against legislation aimed at boosting hiring and aiding Americans who have borne the brunt of the economic crisis.

Senate Democrats will introduce details of their jobs bill by Monday and will bring it up for a vote next week, hoping to take advantage of Friday’s employment report and force a handful of Republicans into a bipartisan compromise that will prevent a filibuster.

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