Labor Force

Unemployment among Hispanics in the U.S. has soared since the recession hit because those workers are disproportionately employed in industries and regions hardest hit by the downturn, according to a congressional report released Wednesday. Hispanic workers were more likely to be employed in the construction sector, which was pounded during the housing collapse, particularly in states including California, Florida and Nevada, which experienced the largest declines in housing prices and biggest increases in foreclosures.

The U.S. economy shed a larger-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December, a disappointing finish to a year that saw more than 4 million jobs disappear, according to a government report today. The unemployment rate last month held steady at 10% last month, but only because more people dropped out of the workforce. Economists were expecting the nation's total payrolls in December to show virtually no change from November, when the economy added a net 4,000 jobs, according to revised figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

California's employment misery continued in November, as employers sliced 10,200 more workers from their payrolls. The statewide unemployment rate fell slightly to 12.3% last month from 12.5% in October, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Development Department, but only because thousands of discouraged workers have left the labor force or even moved out of state. In some areas of California, including depressed urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles, 1 in 5 people in the labor force is out of work.

Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles -- After two long years of economic destruction that saw about 8 million American jobs disappear, the national payroll essentially stopped shrinking last month in an unexpected turn that raised hopes a labor market recovery might finally be at hand. Although most analysts had expected November's job losses to top 100,000, the Labor Department said Friday that employers shed just 11,000 jobs in November -- the smallest number lost since the recession began in December 2007.

The unemployment rate for December, 7.2%, is the number every TV newscaster, economic blogger and talk radio host focused on Friday. That rate, the highest in 16 years, translates into 11.1 million Americans without jobs. But 7.2%% doesn't capture how many people are out of work. By another measure -- from the same employment report -- as much as 13.5% of the labor force is either unemployed or underemployed. The 7.2 figure everyone knows measures something very specific: the portion of people in the work force who wanted to work, looked for a job last month, but weren't working during the first week in December.

Among United States cities, greater Los Angeles ranks as the urban center with the most working artists and California is the top state by the same measure, according to a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts. The study, titled "Artists in the Workforce, 1990-2005" and being released today by the federal arts agency, reveals that San Francisco, followed by Santa Fe, N.M.

Re " 'The general welfare,' " editorial, Dec. 28 The Times calls building a fence on the southern U.S. border a simplistic solution. I would like to ask The Times, six years after 9/11, how can we call ourselves safe when we don't know who is entering the country? If millions of penniless illegal immigrants can walk across our borders annually, why can't well-trained and financed terrorists do the same? According to a July 2007 census report, there are about 54 million Americans ages 16 to 64 who aren't in the labor force.

The pace at which the U.S. economy can grow without creating inflation has probably dropped as a result of slower labor force growth, but productivity should stay strong, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday.

Three promises echo in every speech by candidates in Mexico's presidential campaign: jobs, jobs and more jobs. From the practical to the miraculous, the proposals come from all sides. On the left, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promises employment in massive public works -- a new trans-Mexico shipping route to rival the Panama Canal, high-speed rail and 2 million acres of furniture-grade forest.

As Martin Ludlow, chief of the Los Angeles County labor federation, contemplates his resignation under threat of criminal indictment, the political repercussions of the controversy reach beyond Ludlow himself, most obviously to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. On Friday, Villaraigosa reiterated his support for a man who "is like a son to me," a reminder that few people are more closely allied with the mayor than the now-embattled union chief.