The Department of Labor released the week’s awaited job data today and the numbers weren’t good.  The unemployment rate remained unchanged since November at 10% for December.  Although that may sound alright, the unemployment rate doesn’t count discouraged workers or people who have left the workforce for other reasons.  More than 660,000 people left the workforce last month, which was the most in a single month for 14 years.  If those people had remained in the workforce the unemployment rate would’ve been at 11%.

The real disappointing figure released indicated 85,000 jobs had been lost in December.  This hit especially hard as November’s numbers had been revised to 4,000 jobs created and the markets were hoping for more of the same.  The outlook is not as grim as a year ago, when 700,000 jobs were lost in December, but the outlook does point to a slow economic recovery.  It should be noted: when the recovery does happen those discouraged workers will likely return to the labor force to take advantage of the jobs being created.  Even though the job creation would point to a recovering economy the unemployment rate could still rise.

The markets dropped in reaction to the disappointing job numbers, but made a late date rally assisted by tech giants IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and HP.  The S&P 500 finished up .4% at 1,144.98 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up .1% at 10,618.19.