This morning (1/6/06), the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its numbers on the December employment situation. In November 2005, the economy added 305,000, but in December, only 108,000 new jobs were created.
According to Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of Yoh, “Employment numbers for December should remain steady with a slight, but characteristic, decline during the holidays,” says Lanzalotto. “Small additions to IT budgets and revisits to the backlog of shelved IT projects will help push technology hiring in 2006, while competition among workers with targeted skills will remain strong. Concern over information security and compliance issues, as well as time, cost and energy efficiency, will continue to linger at the forefront of hiring managers’ minds. The outlook is strongest on the health care front, as the swelling needs of aging baby boomers will call for more treatment options and drugs.”
Unemployment rates dipped below 5% in November and continued to decline in December, despite slow re-employment by those hurt by closing businesses in the region hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.
