U.S. Hiring Gain Probably Failed to Cut Jobless

The pace of hiring in November
probably failed to reduce unemployment in the U.S., showing
employers are concerned the world’s largest economy may cool,
economists said before a report today.

Payrolls climbed by 125,000 workers after an 80,000
increase in October, according to the median forecast of 90
economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The jobless rate may have
held at 9 percent.

Companies like DirecTV (DTV) have said they will keep a tight
rein on spending and employment in 2012, reflecting concern over
the outlook for demand, Europe’s debt crisis and political
wrangling over the U.S. deficit. The scant number of jobs will
limit wage gains and deprive consumers of the means to boost
spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

“We’re seeing job gains that are positive though not
impressively so,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist
at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. “Consumer and
business demand is very uncertain. Hiring managers need proof of
sales before they’re willing to add workers.”

The Labor Department’s report is due at 8:30 a.m. in
Washington. Bloomberg survey estimates ranged from increases of
75,000 to 175,000.

The projected gain in payrolls would bring the average for
July through November to 119,000, compared with 131,000 in the
first six months of the year.

The jobless rate has exceeded 8 percent since February
2009, the longest stretch of such levels of unemployment since
monthly records began in 1948.

Fed Forecasts


Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues
last month cut economic growth forecasts for 2012 and said
unemployment will average 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent in the
final three months of next year, up from a prior range of 7.8
percent to 8.2 percent.

Growth in the U.S. and other advanced economies “has been
proceeding too slowly to provide jobs for millions of unemployed
people,” Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said in a Nov. 29
speech in San Francisco. She called for “urgent” international
action to combat a “dearth” of global demand.

Six central banks led by the Fed acted on Nov. 30 to make
more funds available to lenders to preserve the global
expansion. The move came after European leaders said they failed
to boost the region’s bailout fund as much as planned, fueling
concern about a possible breakup of the euro bloc.

Shares Rally


Stocks dropped yesterday after the action by the central
banks helped cap the biggest three-day rally in the Standard &
Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) since March 2009. The gauge fell 0.2 percent
after climbing 7.6 percent from Nov. 28 through Nov. 30.

The crisis in Europe and presidential election in the U.S.
make it difficult to predict the level of economic expansion,
causing DirecTV to “slow our growth rate,” Michael White,
chief executive officer of the largest U.S. satellite-TV
provider, said in an interview last week.

“We’re tightening our belts in terms of spending,” White
said in the Nov. 21 interview. “We’ll cut back on overhead,
hiring and programming.”

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