by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com
The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday an increase of 132,000 workers on the nation?s payrolls in November. The much-anticipated report cast the flagging economy in a somewhat better light.
The payroll numbers exceeded analysts? expectations, with most prognosticating an increase in the low 100,000s.
Even with the increase in payrolls, the unemployment rate rose to 4.5% from 4.4% last month. Counter to this was a revision to October and September?s payrolls numbers which added a net of 42,000 jobs over the two months.
In other economic releases Friday, the University of Michigan announced that their respected Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 90.2 in December, from a reading of 92.1 the previous month.
Economists were caught off guard by the numbers. Most had predicted the index to show slight improvement, to around 92.5.
