The monthly jobs report is out and it is not as rosy as many had hoped. 

The bad news – non farm payroll was down by 85,000.  Economists had been predicting smaller losses or in some cases, even modest gains. 

As disappointing as those numbers are, there was a lot to be happy about in the monthly report.  For starters, November’s number were revised upward and now show a 3,000 job gain – the first gain in jobs since the start of the recession.  Also encouraging  is that December continued to show an increase in temp hiring.  Temp jobs are often a good barometer of recovery since companies will test the waters with temp workers as economic conditions improve and then later return to using permanent employees.