() New York – The U.S. Department of Labor reported payroll results for November Friday morning, which took the market by surprise, indicating a Grinch-like outlook towards the economic recovery that sent stocks down and commodities up.

The unemployment rate now stands at 9.8%, though if you include those who are no longer on benefits line, its more like somewhere north of 15%.  At the same time, Congress is stealing Christmas for about 1 million Americans who’s extended unemployment benefits are disappearing after refusing to renew emergency measures – now that the mid-term elections have come and gone.

The government said that employers only added about 39,000 jobs in November compared to a revised 172,000 jobs created in the prior month.  If you cut out healthcare, social services and temp jobs, the private sector actually lost about 24,000 jobs in November, according to economist Peter Morici.

“So much for the gradual recovery,” noted Prof. Morici.

Economists as a whole were expecting to see November payrolls increase by 150,000.  The news shook Wall Street, sending the greenback down against major foreign currencies and pushing gold and silver back into their higher ranges set earlier in November when the economic uncertainty in Europe pushed gold over $1400 per ounce and silver up over $28.  Crude oil, which eased some, still stood near an $88 per barrel level.

Budget cutting in Washington is under way and the deficit reduction committee is considering drastic measures to make up for the wild spending of the Obama administration under the Democratically-controlled Congress.  Wrestling with repealing the Bush tax cut is just one topic being tabled, but again, with mid-term elections over lawmakers are forgetting about their pledge to Americans – especially the more than 7 million unemployed ones – and now talking about cost cuts though no reduction in government size is being considered.  Meanwhile, as Christmas approaches, there was no ho-ho-ho in November’s payroll figures and undoubtedly that is going to affect hiring outlooks as companies take in all of the economic problems that are holding back hiring decisions.

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Tags: November, November Unemployment