More non-farm jobs created in the month of December amounting to 292,000 jobs, according to a newly released report from The Bureau of Labor Statistics, and according to the report, the unemployment rate remains at 5%.
Tag: December
HONOLULU (AP) — A December surge propelled health care sign-ups through the government’s rehabilitated website past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration said Sunday, reflecting new signs of life for the problem-plagued federal insurance exchange.
Of the more than 1.1 million people now enrolled, nearly 1 million signed up in December, with the majority coming in the week before a pre-Christmas deadline for coverage to start in January. Compare that to a paltry 27,000 in October —the website’s first, error-prone month — or 137,000 in November.The figures tell only part of the story. The administration has yet to provide a December update on the 14 states running their own exchanges. While California, New York, Washington, Kentucky and Connecticut have performed well, others are still struggling.
Still, the end-of-year surge suggests that with HealthCare.Gov now functioning better, the federal market may be starting to pull its weight. The windfall comes at a critical moment for Obama’s sweeping health care law, which becomes “real” for many Americans on Jan. 1 when coverage through the exchanges and key patient protections kick in.
“As we continue our open enrollment campaign, we experienced a welcome surge in enrollment as millions of Americans seek access to affordable health care coverage,” Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a blog post.
In a new Washington Post / ABC News Poll, President Obama’s job approval is seeing its first positive light since last summer. The poll, conducted between December 15 to 18th of 1005 adults showed that 49% of Americans now approve of how the President is doing his job, while 47% disapproves.
In November, the this same poll showed the president in negative territory, with 44% approving while 53% disapproved. The last time President Obama saw a favorable rating was in May 2011, with 56% approving and 38% disapproving of the President handled his job.