For 2010, little improvement seen in job market

U.S. economy to grow too slowly to create many jobs, forecasters say

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
This is an update to correct the affilation of David Levy, who is chairman of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy is limping -- not sprinting -- out of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.


While the economy is likely to grow at a steady but unspectacular 3% pace in 2010, the prospects for significant job growth are dim and the unemployment rate could still be in the 10% neighborhood at this time next year, economists say.

Growth of 3% would be far slower than is usual after a steep recession (the economy grew nearly 10% in the year following the 1958 recession), but it would be slightly stronger than the 2.8% average of the past 20 years.

Above-trend growth "never felt so bad," wrote economists at JP Morgan Chase. "Growth will not be boomy. And growth will not go far in returning the economy to healthy levels of activity."

Still, it's expected that the economy will begin to create some jobs again in 2010, after two years of month-after-month declines that -- including anticipated downward revisions -- total a loss of more 8 million jobs.

According to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Blue Chip Economics, about 1.1 million nonfarm payroll jobs will be created next year. The consensus expects the unemployment rate to be 9.9% a year from now.


Read more:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/little-improvement-seen-in-job-market-in-2010-2009-12-24