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Reuters
December 04, 2009

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Bill Cheney, chief economist, MFC Global Investment Management
Linda Nazareth reports

U.S. employers cut far fewer jobs than expected last month in the best showing for the labour market since the recession began, boosting the U.S. dollar and global stock prices on hopes for a strong economic recovery.

The economy shed only 11,000 jobs in November, well below the 130,000 loss financial markets had braced for, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 10 percent from October's 10.2 percent, a government report on Friday showed.

The labour market improvement was broad based and 159,000 fewer jobs were lost in September and October than previously thought, according to the Labour Department data.

"These numbers are almost too good to be true," said Tom Sowanick, chief investment officer at the OmniVest Group in Princeton, New Jersey.

Proceed with caution?