In the News: Patrick J. O'Keefe Provides Insight on December Employment Report
1/06/2012
On January 6, the U.S. Department of Labor released the December 2011 employment report, which revealed that the jobless rate declined to an almost three-year low of 8.5 percent.
Patrick J. O’Keefe, director of economic research, is speaking to several media outlets about the data.
Prior to the release of the report, he spoke to USA Today as well as TheStreet.com, where he pointed out that since hiring began showing improvement around March 2010, companies have added just shy of three million new jobs as of November 2011.
On Friday, Pat appeared on CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange to discuss report expectations. In the appearance, he said, "We’re moving in the right direction. In fact, when you look at things like the unemployment insurance claims and housing data, all suggest that the rate of hiring is picking up.”
Click here to watch the discussion.
On the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, he said, "The type of growth that we’ve seen over the past six months is probably going to be the average growth that we’re going to see in 2012."
In an article in the Financial Times, Pat said, “Our reaction to these numbers, that they’re positive, can’t ignore the fact that we are still well below where we were before the recession.”
He also appeared on Bloomberg Radio’s Hays Advantage.