Jobapalooza

The November job numbers are out and they are actually better than expected:  Unemployment is down to 10% even and only 11K jobs were lost for the month.  The bad news:  Again, we need to be positive 200K a month or so to start making a dent.  Holiday hiring is making a difference at least for one month, and more of that stimulus is starting to kick in.

Not seeing the turnaround yet however.  The U-6 is still at 17.2%.  Got a long way to go to get out of this hole.

[UPDATE 9:23 AM] Pete Abel at the Moderate Voice has a good point:  last month Canada posted a job gain and still has lower unemployment than the US, despite their "socialist health care program." 

Now … don’t get me wrong. I am not a raging fan of so-called “socialism” — I still prefer capitalism, thank you very much — nor am I suggesting Canada is better than the U.S., nor do I think it’s fair to draw a comparison on two month’s worth of employment data. But what might be fair to conclude is that a country like Canada, with a sizable investment in social programs, can still generate jobs and expand its economy. In other words, responsible expansion of social programs in the U.S. does not have to be the end of our country as we know it, no matter how much the fire-breathing right-wingers might want us to think so.

Canada's failure to explode despite the Wingers' predictions only continues to stress how silly the Wingers are...and how badly we need a health care reform plan as good or better than Canada's.