Last night and early this morning, before the actual December jobs report was released, almost every political and media pundit was proclaiming “good news ahead”….

However, against the backdrop of Congress debating yet another unemployment extension; and knowing strong gains would undermine the liberal position to extend; and knowing the statistics are heavily manipulated in favor of political optics – it really was a no brainer to expect poor results.

USA TODAY –  Bad weather helped the labor market close out 2013 in disappointing fashion as employers added just 74,000 jobs after several months of solid gains.

That’s the smallest number of new jobs since January 2011. The unemployment rate fell from 7% to 6.7%, lowest since October 2008, the Labor Department said Friday.

The decline was mostly due to a drop of 347,000 in the labor force — the number of Americans working or looking for work.

Many economists say the poor showing was a one-month quirk that doesn’t change the upward trajectory of both the economy and job market.

The median forecast of 37 economists surveyed by USA TODAY was for a gain of 205,000 jobs last month. Nearly a third raised their projections after payroll processor ADP’s survey this week showed businesses adding 238,000 jobs in December, the most in 13 months. Other surveys of economists pointed to gains of 197,000 to 200,000.  (read more)