Today's markets are likely to move based on the higher-than-expected unemployment rate. At 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department announced a mixed employment picture: lower-than-expected job loss, yet higher-than-expected unemployment rate. But the more important questions for the economy are how many jobs were lost in 2008 and how many more will perish in the next few years.
Despite being better than expected, the numbers of jobs lost in December are still awful at 524,000. Not to mention, that the unemployment rate rose from 6.7% to 7.2%. Economists had forecast 550,000 lost jobs in December and an unemployment rate of 7%. The actual 7.2% unemployment rate is the highest in 26 years. Also, the 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008 marks the worst level since 1945. If things keep going along those lines, the unemployment rate could top 10%.
