all right. 38 past hour. we ve been waiting for this news. the december jobs report was just released. let s get the latest from cnbc s brian schactman. brian, what are the numbers in. plus 100,000 jobs with an unemployment rate of 8.5%. okay. the expectation was 155 and a tick up in the unemployment rate to 8.7. wow. so it s a strong number, the lowest unemployment rate since february of 2009, so the trend is definitely towards a stronger jobs market here. do i want to point out a couple quick things. 5.6 million long-term unemployed. government shed 12,000 jobs last month. that s 280 government jobs lost last year and to what joe was talking about earlier there were 23,000 manufacturing jobs added. the estimate was for circumstances and can i tell you i ve done a lot of reporting across the country in the last year on manufacturing in the u.s., and a lot of people say it s more expensive overseas to ship and to pay for workers and
temporary service jobs last month were up 16,000. but people should keep in mind every christmas shopping season we add temporary retailer workers. they try to adjust for that seasonally in the data. the plus 100,000 monthly pace of job gains is approximately what we ve seen on average for the last year or so. i think that is basically what the private sector is equipped to deliver right now. we should have some acceleration with that if leading indicators of job growth are going to play out as they normally do. we re really kind of where we were in terms of monthly job gains in 2004 and 1992, a similar distance from the bottom of a recession. the problem was of course we are in a deeper hole. it feels that much more worse and unfortunately a lot more people are unemployed. jenna: as a former labor secretary, your quick thoughts, susan from discovery bay, california, do not raise the debt ceiling it is another trap by the democrats and. stimulus. do you think the debt ceiling is enough
an amtrak train on tuesday. that does it for us for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. tomorrow we ll introduce you to one of the newest members of congress who will have to a lot to say about mortgages and foreclosures. remember, follow the show online and on twitter at mitchell reports. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what s next on news nation. hi, tamron. in our next hour president obama is leaving tonight from his vacation in hawaii after extending it by one day. he may need the extra day of rest after what lies ahead. they re planning to repeal health care reform. thousands of blackbirds fall dead from the sky over an arkansas town. plus 100,000 dead fish found not far away. we re learning new details of about what may have happened there. and a convicted murder could