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Consumers facing debt consolidation and running low on emergency funds received encouraging news on Friday as the national unemployment rate declined for the first time since the late summer.

According to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Labor detailing the employment situation for November, the national unemployment rate dropped slightly as it shed 0.2 percentage points to hit 10 percent.

After averaging a drop of 135,000 jobs from payroll over the last three months, November only saw a loss of 11,000 in nonfarm payrolls employment.
"I am encouraged by the pattern of moderated job loss; however, I will not be satisfied until there are robust job gains, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said following the release of the figures.

"We are working hard to sustain economic growth and spur renewed hiring for the millions of Americans who need and want work but cannot find it," she added.

The industries that saw the most significant job losses throughout the month were in manufacturing (which shed 41,000 jobs), construction (-27,000) and information (-17,000). However, they were offset by gains in both professional/business services and health care industries, which saw increases in employment of 86,000 and 21,000 respectively.

Newly released data may produce mixed emotions for jobless struggling with debt management problems, as more than 160,000 jobs were cut in November despite employers’ reducing the amount of jobs they are shedding yet again.

According to ADP’s most recent national employment report released on Wednesday, nonfarm private employment payrolls decreased by a seasonally adjusted figure of 169,000 from October to November. The figure was in itself a decline of 26,000 from the seasonally adjusted payroll declines found in the previous month’s report.

The results also represented the eighth straight month that fewer jobs had been shed from payrolls than the month before.

"We’re going to see job losses extend well into 2010," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com, told BusinessWeek. "The labor market is crawling toward stabilization. We need the labor market to improve to generate the wage income necessary to support spending."

Despite posting their smallest amount of employment losses since July 2008, small-sized businesses – defined as companies with 50 or fewer workers – saw the largest number of employment decline in November of 68,000.

Medium sized businesses – between 50 and 499 workers – saw the second largest rate of decline, losing 57,000 workers from their payrolls, while large businesses – 500 or more workers – had the smallest payroll decline of 44,000.

An overwhelming number of adults are expecting to experience stress this holiday season, while one in three expect additional worries due to bill consolidation and other financial issues caused by the current economic downturn.

According to a newly released Holiday Stress Index commissioned by Breakthrough at Caron and conducted by Harris Interactive, 38 percent of adults said they expected to feel additional stress and anxiety this holiday season because of the economy’s current condition.

Overall, 90 percent of adults surveyed said they expected some stress or anxiety this season.

Additionally, 41 percent of respondents reported anxiousness due to worries they would not be able to buy gifts for everyone they wanted to, while 21 percent said they felt there was too much emphasis placed on gift-giving during the holidays.

"One problem is that we have gotten away from the most important part of the holiday season — the connection with those we love," said Ann W. Smith, Breakthrough’s executive director. "People think that spending money and buying gifts is a substitute for intimacy. Ironically, our study indicates that, given a choice, most would prefer family intimacy and connection as opposed to material goods."

The survey also found that family interactions may be a cause of stress for many during the holidays. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that conflicts occurred during their families’ holiday gatherings.

While many consumers may be dealing with bill consolidation and other financial issues following the recession, more are becoming confident that their fortunes will improve in 2010.

According to the most recent WealthWizards Worry Index released on Tuesday, an increasing amount of consumers are expecting for their lives to improve once 2010 gets underway.

After only 46 percent of consumers anticipated a boost in their lives at the end of September, the percentage grew to 58 percent in October on October 31 before increasing yet again to 63 percent in the most recent survey taken November 30.

The reasoning behind the increased sentiment lay in the fact that more consumers are becoming sure that an economic recovery is slowly getting underway. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they felt the economic recovery had begun in late 2009 and would carry over into 2010.

"While there remain many challenges ahead for consumers – record high unemployment, increasing foreclosures, flat home values, and concerns about affordable healthcare – there now appears to be a glimmer of hope for a better economy in 2010," says Thomas Hertog, editor at Wealth Hazards.

Despite the optimistic outlook, the survey found that consumers were still worried about their jobs, healthcare, and a "double-dip" back into a recession.

Last week, the Reuters/University of Michigan index regarding consumer sentiment upwardly revised its rate to 67.4 in November from the 66.0 it had reported earlier.

While more consumers ventured out to stores on Black Friday than they had one year earlier, spending saw a decrease to kick off the 2009 holiday season.

According to the National Retail Federation, the average consumer who participated in Black Friday sales spent an average of $343.31. The figure was 7.9 percent below the $372.57 average spent by consumers during the shopping holiday in 2008, Reuters reported.

The decline in spending came despite the survey’s findings that 195 million shoppers descended on retail stores during Black Friday, up from the 172 million shoppers documented in 2008.

"While retailers are encouraged by the number of Americans who shopped over Black Friday weekend, they know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas," said Tracy Mullin, CEO and president of the NRF.

While the NRF blamed the decrease in sales on consumers deciding to purchase less expensive items, a survey conducted by America’s Research Group suggested that credit card debt consolidation over the holiday could have played a factor as well.

According to the survey, which was conducted for Reuters, only 26 percent of consumers said they used a credit card while 74 percent used either cash or debit cards.

ARG founder Britt Beemer noted that credit card purchases were usually 20 to 40 percent more expensive than purchases using other payment methods, Reuters reported.

In the wake of a recession that saw the sudden disappearance of many senior citizens’ retirement funds and nest eggs, food pantries across the country are seeing increased amounts of the elderly using their services so they can put food on the table.

Citing Department of Agriculture statistics, the Huffington Post recently reported that the number of elderly who were living alone and dependent on food pantries for sustenance had jumped from 225,000 in 2006 to 408,000 in 2008, or an increase of 81 percent.

"What we see in line is lots of gray hair, lots of walkers," Marti Forman, CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based Cooperative Feeding Program, told the website.

In addition to the growing problem of senior citizens needing help with their food costs, Catholic Charities USA spokesman Roger Conner added that many senior citizens were also resistant to admit they needed help consolidating debt and managing their expenses.

"They’re of a generation that feels they took care of themselves, and now in these desperate straits they don’t want to acknowledge it," he told the Post.

With so many Americans going without food, a new report by Plos One on how much food is wasted by those who can afford food expenses may be troubling. According to the report, 40 percent of all food purchased in the country each year is thrown away, a 50 percent increase over figures from 1974.

Real consumer spending increased in October for the fourth straight month, showing further signs that the economy is slowly on its way to recovery as fewer consumers need to consolidate debt.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Personal Income and Outlays report for October, personal income increased by 0.2 percent, or $30.1 billion, while disposable personal income increased by 0.4 percent, or $45.7 billion.

Both figures represented the largest of the gains that had been seen over the last four months. Each figure’s last decline occurred in June when personal income and DPI dropped 1 and 0.9 percent respectively.

Despite the increase, which was above the estimates of MarketWatch experts, Moody’s Economy.com economist Scott Hoyt said that it would remain behind gross domestic product figures.

"Spending, which makes up about 70 percent of [gross domestic product], is expected to generally lag growth in GDP in the coming quarters due to the weights of weakening housing markets and job growth and record financial obligations," he said, according to MarketWatch.

The report also found that the real DPI – which adjusts the figure to remove price changes – had in increased by 0.2 percent in October following a 0.1 percent in September.

Unemployed workers are unlikely to see much relief as they look to consolidate debt while looking to restart their careers, as Kiplinger is forecasting unemployment rates to remain above 10 percent through both 2009 and 2010.

In an article written by The Kiplinger Letter associate editor Jerome Idaszak, he warned that national unemployment figures stood to increase further in 2010 before finally recovering.

He added that the rate could increase to as high as 10.5 percent by the spring before declining closer to 10 percent by the end of the year.

Idaszak said even as companies begin seeing better financial prospects, total employment would likely only increase by about 1 million workers. This lack of new jobs will be due to companies’ preferences of transitioning part-time employees to full-time positions as they become less wary of expanding and begin to increase production.

"It will take years to return to pre-recession employment totals, rehiring the nearly 8 million folks who have been laid off, plus the 1.5 million new workers who enter the labor market each year," he
wrote. "And that doesn’t take into account the 9 million part-time workers who want to hold down a full-time job."

The unemployment rate for October sat at 10.2 percent, its highest rate since 1983.