U.S. employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, confounding expectations the labor market was finally stabilizing and piling pressure on President Barack Obama to spur job growth, according to Reuters. Unemployment, which held steady at 10 percent, remains the Achilles heel of the economy"s recovery from its worst recession in 70 years. Creating jobs is critical to sustaining the recovery when government stimulus fades. November payrolls were revised to show the economy actually added 4,000 jobs rather than losing 11,000, as initially reported, breaking a streak of 22 consecutive monthly losses, the Labor Department"s report on Friday showed. With revisions to October, however, the economy lost 1,000 more jobs than previously estimated over the October-November period and the stable unemployment rate in December reflected a surprisingly large number of discouraged jobseekers leaving the labor force. December"s payrolls plunge was much worse than what economists had expected. Wall Street had forecast a flat reading and a tick up in the unemployment rate to 10.1 percent. Payrolls fell in the manufacturing, construction and the service-providing sectors. Government employment also dipped.
