Not truly an opposing story, as underemployment has been growing for decades imho, and it looks to me like it will continue to do so. And of course underemployment can grow even as unemployment falls, for obvious reasons.
"U.S. Private Sector Job Growth Far Exceeds Economist Estimates
(RTT News)
Private sector employment in the U.S. showed a substantial increase in the month of December, according to a report released by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) on Wednesday, with the private sector job growth far exceeding economist estimates.
The report said private sector employment increased by 297,000 jobs in December following a downwardly revised increase of 92,000 jobs in November. Economists had expected an increase of about 97,000 jobs compared to the increase of 93,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
ADP said that the much stronger than expected job growth in December reflects a pace that is well above what is usually associated with a declining unemployment rate.
The sharp rise in employment was largely due to job growth in the service-providing sector, which added 270,000 jobs in December. The increase marked the eleventh consecutive monthly gain and was the largest monthly increase in the history of the ADP report.
Employment in the goods-producing sector rose by a more modest 27,000 jobs in December, although it still marked the biggest increase since February of 2006.
The report also showed that the job growth reflected notable increases in employment at small and medium-size businesses, which added 117,000 jobs and 144,00 jobs, respectively. Employment at large businesses increased by 36,000 jobs.
Commenting on the data, ING senior economist James Knightley said, "The ADP private sector employment report has clearly boosted hopes that Friday's payrolls figure will be on the strong side." However, he noted, "Government job losses are still a threat given state and local government budget issues and will subtract from the headline figure."
Friday's Labor Department report, which includes both private and public sector jobs, is currently expected to show that employment increased by about 140,000 jobs in December following the addition of 39,000 jobs in November.
The unemployment rate is also expected to edge down to 9.7% from 9.8%. "