WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following statement was issued Thursday by
the National Federation of Independent Business:

Chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB) William C. Dunkelberg, issued the following statement on the
December job numbers, based on NFIB’s monthly economic survey that will
be released on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. The survey was conducted
throughout December and reflects the responses of 735 randomly-sampled
NFIB members:

“Unfortunately, December’s jobs numbers fizzled, with the net
change in employment per firm turning negative again; small businesses
lost an average .15 workers per firm. Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of
the owners added an average of 2.6 workers per firm over the past few
months, and 12 percent reduced employment an average of 3.5 workers per
firm. However, the majority of owners (75 percent) made no net change in
employment. Forty-five percent of owners hired or tried to hire in the
past 3 months, but 34 percent of them reported few or no qualified
applicants for the position(s).

“The good news is that the number of owners cutting jobs has
‘normalized’. In the past several months, reports of those cutting
workers have been at the lowest levels since the recession started in
December 2007. Initial claims for unemployment are now running closer to
375,000-a great improvement in recent months. In a solid job market,
over 300,000 file initial claims for unemployment, thus current readings
are much closer to full employment levels than they have been for years.
The percentage of owners adding workers continued to trend up. Given
this trend, reports of new job creation should see a slight uptick in
the coming months.

“Fifteen percent of owners (seasonally adjusted) reported hard to
fill job openings. Although down 1 point from November, this is the
second highest reading in 39 months. Over the next three months, 9
percent plan to increase employment (down 2 points), and 8 percent plan
to reduce their workforce (down 3 points), yielding a seasonally
adjusted net 6 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, a 1 point
decline but still one of the strongest readings since September 2008.

“Only time will tell what 2012 will bring. At least it appears that
plans to hire are trending in a positive direction.”

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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