The US economy lost 85,000 jobs in December, more jobs than anticipated, and extinguishing hopes of a swift recovery from what The New York Times is calling “the Great Recession.”

One way to cope with the recession in the US. Photo credit: Alan Turkus

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that while the unemployment rate remains steady at 10 percent, the loss of so many jobs indicates that US companies are still cautious about hiring, The Financial Times reported. The one bright note of the report, however, saw November’s loss of 11,000 jobs revised to a gain of 4,000 jobs, the first time since December 2007 that the US economy actually added employees, The Financial Times reported. Still, cautioned The New York Times, an additional 16,000 jobs were added to October’s loss tally.

The number of unemployed people in the US now stands at 15.3 million, The Times reported, nearly double the 7.7 million recorded at the official start of the recession in December 2007. The paper reported, however, that analysts expect to see a temporary upsurge in employment this spring as the US Census Bureau hires 1.15 million temporary workers to conduct the 2010 census.