Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Us Into (and perhaps, very slowly, out of?)
Usually I show the chart which puts the bottom of each curve at the same X coordinate on the graph. This one shows jobs relative to peak employment starting each recession at X = 0, which even more dramatically shows, in comparison, the ridiculously bad employment picture of this recession/recovery.
The unemployment rate decreased from 8.7% (revised, originally reported as 8.6%) to 8.5%, and now stands about where it was when President Obama took office. It peaked at 10.0% in October, 2009. The underemployment rate (U6) went down significantly, from 15.6% to 15.2% Average hourly wages increased by $0.04 last month.
More than 200,000 private sector jobs were created last month, but, somewhat paradoxically "About 50,000 Americans left the labor force in December." The only sector which lost jobs was Government, to the tune of 12000.
Economics is hard. Go shopping.