New Unemployment Numbers 'Devastating' but Not Debilitating

"Expert" economists predicted that at least 140,000 new jobs would be created in November and that the unemployment rate would hang tight at 9.6 percent (if not be reduced a fraction). So it felt like a punch in the stomach to the American work force when the Department of Labor's monthly report stated that only 39,000 jobs had been added and that unemployment has climbed to 9.8 percent.

"The numbers are devastating," says national trends expert Michael G. Zey, PhD, a professor at Montclair University. "They show this so-called economic recovery has been tepid. In a true recovery, we would be adding more than 200,000 jobs per month, and bringing back some of the 8 million jobs lost since 2007."