The Good: Unemployment rates (both headline and those including underemployed) continued to decline.
The Bad: unemployment rates continued to decline in large part due to individuals dropping from the labor force.
The Good: there is a definitive sign that hours worked per person (an important aspect of GDP growth) has bottomed and is once again growing.
The Pretty Good: private sector growth has been consistent (but perhaps too low), but headline figures have been dragged down by a decline in government workers (due to austerity). My opinion is that government workers tend to add less to economic activity, so headline employment may underestimate GDP growth.
Source: BLS
Look carefully into the data and you will find that much of the increase in employment was temporary employment during the last couple of months of the year. I believe that much of the current employment problems stem from a lack of real wealth creating companies. Untill the country gets away from all the jobs in the financial service sector. I believe that the unemployment situation will not improve. Jim Rogers has stated this in many of the interviews that he has given to the news media that the financial services sector is much to large. Jim Rogers also believes that the savings rate must be much higher if we are to sustain any high degree of economic growth. Many retailers can make more money loaning money to their customers at over 20% interest than they can make selling product to their customers. What does that tell you about jobs.
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