The US Labor Department has announced that 85 000 more jobs were lost in the US in December, although unemployment remained stable at 10%. These figures were surprising considering the department had had to revise Novembers figures which had initially showed 11 000 job cuts but were changed to reflect the fact that 4000 jobs were actually added to the payroll.
53 000 construction positions disappeared in December, along with 27 000 in manufacturing. At the same time, professional and business services companies created 50 000 new posts.
Since the beginning of the recession, 7.2 million US jobs have been lost, with 4.2 million going last year alone.
Source: bbc.co.uk/11.01.10