Unemployment, Economy | featured news

U.S. private employers have recorded 11 consecutive months of job gains, yet the number of people who are so discouraged that they have given up searching for work stands at an all-time high.

A new study that surveyed unemployed workers over a 15-month period found that nearly 70 percent of those entering new careers had to take a cut in pay.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, with applications hitting the lowest level in two and a half years.

Vice President Joe Biden says a weak November jobs report is "disappointing" and a sign that the economic recovery is fragile.

Employers added the most jobs in five months, but the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to a three-month low, hinting at some improvement in the listless labor market.

Schemes that ask for money to set up clients in jobs that never materialize are proliferating, watchdogs say.One in a series of occasional reports about the U.S. unemployment crisis.

Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the drop wasn't enough to reverse a big increase the previous week.

The simple truth is that Obama and the Democratic Congress were dealt a lousy economic hand, and they've played it about as well as anyone could. Along with their predecessors and the holdovers at the Federal Reserve, they prevented a collapse of the global financial system and a 1930s-like depression. But given the magnitude of the financial crisis and the global imbalances that gave rise to it, a prolonged period of slow growth and high unemployment was almost inevitable.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday laid out a case for the central bank to take further action to bolster growth, citing the risks of prolonged high unemployment and a U.S. economy slipping into a deflationary spiral.