The number of new jobs created in December (155,000), and percent unemployment (7.8), were the same as the revised numbers for November.

Also, about the same number of people are looking for work (12.2 million), with additional millions too discouraged even to look.

Put simply, we’re a very long way from the job growth we need to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. That would be at least 300,000 new jobs per month.

All of which means job growth and wage growth should be the central focus of economic policy, not deficit reduction.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that payrolls grew by 146,000 last month and unemployment ticked down to 7.7%, the lowest rate since late 2008.  That decline, however, was once again driven by labor force withdrawal, so it should not be taken as a sign of a tighter job market.

Analysts were expecting the impact of the storm on the most densely-packed labor markets in the country to significantly lower the job count.  But the Bureau reported that their survey response rates in the affected states were in the normal range, so they don’t believe Sandy is “substantively” distorting these numbers.

Construction data may, however, reveal some storm-related effects, with jobs off 20,000 in November after growing slightly in prior months as the housing market has begun to show signs of life (we’ll have to wait for the state data release later in the month to see if the losses were in affected states).

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