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- Despite an upswing in hiring during 2011, the jobs crisis could last many more years as millions of Americans struggle to find work.

In Orlando, Florida, Brenda Solomon lost her retail job last May at a department store and was unable to find even temporary work during the holiday season.

“I’ve tried and tried and tried,” Solomon, 58, said on Friday while visiting a job center.

Earlier, the U.S. Labor department said employers added 200,000 jobs during December, many more than expected by Wall Street. In 2011 as a whole, 1.64 million jobs were created, well above the 940,000 in 2010 and the best showing since 2006.

But the amount of jobs in the economy is still about 6.1 million lower than before the brutal 2007-2009 recession. At December’s pace of gains, it would take about 2 1/2 years just to get back to pre-recession levels of employment.

That means many people will be in for an agonizing wait.

In December, 5.6 million of the nation’s unemployed had been out of work for at least six months, the Labor Department data showed, only slightly lower than the previous month.

Laquanda Carmichael has been without work for just over a year and has seen no improvement in the labor market.

“It’s been the same to me. I have a lot of discouraging days,” the 39 year-old former science teacher and hospital worker said.

“I’m looking for anything right now. Warehouse processing, hospitality, anything.”

While jobs creation certainly picked up in the United States during the end of the year, economists point out that even a gain of 200,000 underwhelms considering constant growth in the population and the still-high 8.5 percent unemployment rate.

Princeton University economist Paul Krugman said that at December’s pace it could take a decade for the labor market to recover from the recession.

In a back-of-the-envelope calculation, Krugman was considering that the country’s growing population adds at least 100,000 people to the workforce every month.

“We need much faster job growth,” he wrote on his blog. “It says something about how beaten down we are that this (jobs report for December) is considered good news.”

The unemployment numbers reflect a persistent difference between those with a higher education and those without - especially in certain sectors like engineering.

Nearly 90 percent of 2011 graduates from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts got jobs or attended graduate school - almost the same level as before 2008.

Jeanette Doyle, director of the school’s Career Development Center, said there was a 7 percent uptick in late 2011 in the number of companies at the school’s fall recruiting event, and 17 companies were on a wait list to get in.

For lower-paid Americans, the picture is very different.

Construction worker Richard White, also at the job center in Orlando, has not had steady work in the last three years, and gets by on occasional stints doing electrical work or carpentry.

In December, the construction industry added 17,000 jobs. But that sector, devastated by a burst housing bubble that helped trigger the last recession, has even farther to go than the rest of the economy before it can recover.

There were still almost a third fewer construction jobs in December than at the industry’s pre-recession peak in August 2006.

As for the December’s advance, White said: “I’m not seeing it.”

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TORONTO

FRANKLIN COUNTY • The wound left when Chrysler shuttered its plants in 2008 and 2009 hasn’t healed in nearby Franklin County, where residents for years relied on those paychecks.

The county has seen the sharpest rise in poverty in the metro region since the recession, according to recently released census figures. In 2006, a year before the recession officially began, 10.3 percent of residents lived below the poverty level. That figure hit 17 percent in 2010, the most recent statistics available.

When asked why the county was hit so hard, those who work with the poor unanimously cite the Chrysler closure in Fenton and its lingering effects on jobs.

“I think disproportionately we were hit harder than other areas, and that showed in our unemployment rate,” said Presiding County Commissioner John Griesheimer.

Many in the county haven’t found a way to replace good-paying jobs, and the county is about to be dealt another blow with ties to the auto industry.

Harman-Becker Automotive Systems plans to start shutting its plant in Washington, Mo., as soon as this month, leaving nearly 300 people without jobs, said Sandy Lucy, the city’s mayor.

Most of those jobs are in manufacturing. Many workers earn $40,000 to $60,000 a year assembling auto accessories such as car radios and navigation systems. The company supplied parts to the Chrysler plant.

Harman-Becker’s closure was announced more than a year ago but wasn’t supposed to begin until summer. The plant is now expected to be shuttered by spring.

The plant is an example of efforts to create county jobs. The state and city bent over backward to lure Harman-Becker to Washington in 2005, with incentives worth nearly $3 million.

The company has repaid the state almost $540,000 under a “clawback provision,” which allows the state to recover tax money from businesses that fail to meet economic commitments, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The company did not have to repay nearly $40,000 it received through the Missouri Quality Jobs program because it created and maintained jobs for three years. Harman-Becker did not respond to an email request for comment.

The pending closure worries Sandy Crider, executive director of Loving Hearts Outreach food pantry in Washington. She sees people coming to the pantry who lost jobs in the auto industry that paid $25 or $30 an hour with health benefits and retirement plans, and who have continued to struggle after those jobs disappeared.

“Now they’re working two part-time jobs for minimum wage and no health insurance,” Crider said. “They’re embarrassed because they can’t find jobs to bring them back to the point where they were in the past.”

A 58-year-old freelance Web developer standing in line recently at the Agape House food pantry in St. Clair said the loss of the plants has crippled the county and sent ripples beyond the auto industry. His own workload is down 40 percent from before the recession, said the man, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Bill, so his customers wouldn’t know his financial situation.

“I could see if you’re a bad person, you’re not going to hold a job,” he said. “But I see a lot of good, hardworking people who want a job and there’s nothing for them.”

Crider said more families are becoming homeless and must move in with other family members, also on fixed incomes.

“That’s what the homelessness looks like in Franklin County,” she said.

Ellen Dietrich, director of community relations of the Jefferson Franklin Community Action Corp., has seen the uptick in poverty, too.

Not long ago, a woman who used to donate came into the social service agency’s office. Instead of writing a check, she asked for help.

“People come in and give us résumés and say if we know of anyone hiring, please pass it along,” said Tammy Stowe, executive director of the Union Chamber of Commerce.

Franklin County government relies heavily on sales tax, but collections hit a low of $4.9 million in 2009. Since then, sales tax revenue has been on a slight upswing, said county Auditor Tammy Vemmer.

To help balance the budget the last couple of years, county employees have been required to clean their own offices to save on janitorial services. This year, unelected, full-time county employees will get a $700 boost in pay. They have not seen raises since 2008, Vemmer said.

Griesheimer, the presiding county commissioner, said the county had been able to avoid layoffs, unlike the private sector.

From January 2009 through March 2011, unemployment in Franklin County topped 10 percent for all but two months, and peaked at 13.4 percent in February 2010. The rate dipped to 8.8 percent in November, the most recent data available.

Christie Bean, of Gerald, has searched for a full-time job for more than five years. “I call the temp service every day,” she said.

Bean lost her assembly-line position when the Daisy BB bullet factory shut down in Salem, Mo. She’d like a permanent factory job but knows she can’t be picky.

“People who are getting jobs are holding onto them,” said Bean, 42.

Her husband sells scrap metal and fixes cars, but work has dried up. He has resorted to selling firewood door to door.

“He’s working hard and he’s not getting anywhere,” said Bean. He once had a good factory job, too, she said, but he lost it because of back problems.

Last month, Bean and her sister stopped at the Loving Hearts Outreach food pantry in Washington. Bean packed a basket of pasta, tuna, tomato soup, applesauce and red beans and rice into the back seat of her car and was grateful for it.

Other county residents are slowly digging their way out. Cody Sansom, 27, once made $20 an hour working construction jobs. When the demand for new houses dried up, so did work. He became homeless three years ago and moved to the Agape House shelter three months ago.

He recently landed a job as a cashier and pizza cook at a convenience store, where he earns minimum wage.

“It’s the lowest I’ve ever made,” said Sansom, who will start classes at East Central College in Union next month. “But it’s a job.”

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Stocks are opening slightly lower as worries over the European debt crisis persist, overshadowing a strong auction of Italian government debt.

The European Central Bank said the continent’s banks parked a record $590.72 billion overnight at the bank, reflecting distrust in the European banking system.

Italy held two successful bond auctions Wednesday at a substantially lower cost than what it paid in similar auctions last month payday loan lenders. The sales raised hopes that the country would be able to roll over its enormous national debt with new bonds.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 20 points at 12,272 in early trading. The S&P 500 is down 3 at 1,262. The Nasdaq is down 6 at 2,619.

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Russia unexpectedly reduced its benchmark rate, suggesting policy makers see a global economic slump posing greater risks than inflation to the world

+%3Cp%3E+More+monetary+stimulus+from+the+U.S.+Federal+Reserve+would+be+the+%22wrong+path%2C%22+despite+the+threat+the+simmering+European+debt+crisis+is+posing+for+the+U.S.+economy%2C+a+top+Fed+official+known+for+his+hawkish+views+on+inflation+said+on+Friday.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EIt+is+up+to+Congress+and+the+President+–+not+the+U.S.+central+bank+–+to+clean+up+the+%22yucky+mess%22+that+is+the+country%27s+debt+and+fiscal+problems%2C+Dallas+Fed+President+Richard+Fisher+said%2C+reprising+what+is+for+him+a+frequent+theme+in+public+speeches.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%22The+Federal+Reserve+has+done+everything+it+can%2C+and+more%2C+to+reduce+unemployment+without+forsaking+our+sacred+commitment+to+maintaining+price+stability%2C+or+crossing+over+the+monetary+river+Styx+into+full-blown+debt+monetization%2C%22+Fisher+told+the+Austin+Chamber+of+Commerce.+%22From+my+standpoint%2C+resorting+to+further+monetary+accommodation+to+clean+out+the+sink%2C+clogged+by+the+flotsam+and+jetsam+of+a+jolly%2C+drunken+fiscal+and+financial+party+that+has+gone+on+far+too+long%2C+is+the+wrong+path+to+follow.%22%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+U.S.+central+bank+stood+pat+on+policy+at+its+meeting+Tuesday%2C+leaving+interest+rates+near+zero%2C+and+continuing+to+signal+that+it+will+keep+them+there+through+at+least+mid-2013.+One+policymaker%2C+Chicago+Fed+President+Charles+Evans%2C+dissented%2C+calling+for+further+easing.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3ESpeaking+in+Florence%2C+Italy+on+Friday%2C+Evans+reiterated+his+call+for+the+Fed+to+keep+rates+low+until+unemployment%2C+now+at+8.6+percent%2C+falls+below+7+percent%2C+as+long+as+inflation+does+not+threaten+to+top+3+percent.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EHe+also+said+that+while+the+United+States+needs+better+fiscal+discipline+in+the+medium+and+long+term%2C+some+%22smart+stimulus%22+would+help+a+lot+in+the+short+term.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EDISSENTERS%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EFisher+and+fellow+hawks+Minneapolis+Fed+President+Narayana+Kocherlakota+and+Philadelphia+Fed+President+Charles+Plosser+were+the+dissenters+earlier+this+year+as+the+Fed+eased+policy+to+jumpstart+a+slowing+recovery.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EFisher+on+Friday+said+his+votes+were+driven+not+by+a+fear+that+easing+would+stoke+inflation+but+on+concern+it+would+not+help+on+employment.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EInflation%2C+he+said%2C+is+headed+back+down+toward+the+Fed%27s+2+percent+target%2C+and+recent+economic+indicators+suggest+domestic+demand+is+strengthening.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EStill%2C+souring+conditions+in+Europe+and+slowing+growth+in+emerging+economies+like+China+and+Brazil+threaten+to+knock+the+U.S.+recovery+off+course+again%2C+Fisher+said.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EFinancial+markets+remain+on+edge+about+Europe%27s+ability+to+put+a+floor+under+a+bond+market+selloff+that+is+pushing+borrowing+costs+for+countries+such+as+Italy+and+Spain+toward+unsustainable+levels.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EBut+there+is+little+U.S.+policymakers+can+do+but+%22pray+that+fiscal+and+monetary+authorities+abroad+get+it+right%2C%22+Fisher+said.+To+reporters+after+the+speech%2C+Fisher+said+he+does+not+envision+the+need+for+a+monetary+policy+response+to+Europe%27s+crisis%2C+unless+there+were+to+be+a+panic+of+some+sort.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EIn+testimony+at+the+U.S.+House+of+Representatives+Friday%2C+the+New+York+Fed%27s+powerful+chief%2C+William+Dudley%2C+made+a+similar+point.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%22I+don%27t+anticipate%2C+even+if+the+crisis+in+Europe+were+to+worsen%2C+further+steps+on+the+part+of+the+Federal+Reserve+at+this+time%2C%22+Dudley+told+the+panel+of+lawmakers.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3ESpeaking+in+the+Texas+capital+about+1%2C000+miles+away%2C+Fisher+warned+against+the+Fed+opening+the+spigots+of+liquidity+further+to+get+the+economy+moving+again%2C+when+the+biggest+culprit+in+his+view+was+uncertainty+over+tax+policy%2C+given+the+huge+national+debt.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%22It+may+provide+immediate+relief+but+risks+destroying+the+plumbing+of+the+entire+house%2C%22+said+Fisher%2C+who+often+uses+colorful+metaphors+and+literary+references+to+enliven+his+speeches.+%22Better+that+the+Congress+and+the+president+–+the+makers+of+fiscal+policy+and+regulation+–+roll+up+their+sleeves+and+get+on+with+the+yucky+task+of+cleaning+out+the+clogged+drain.%22%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EFisher+and+his+fellow+hawkish+dissenters+rotate+off+the+Fed%27s+policy-setting+panel+next+year%2C+and+only+one+policy+hawk+–+Richmond+Fed+President+Jeffrey+Lacker+–+will+rotate+in.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+change+in+voting+line-up+means+the+panel+will+lean+more+dovish+than+it+did+last+year%2C+suggesting+Fed+Chairman+Ben+Bernanke+may+have+more+support+for+further+easing+in+the+New+Year.%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Fassets%2Fprint%3Faid%3DUSTRE7BC0CW20111217%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ERead+more%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

The Sappington Farmers Market, which filed for bankruptcy Friday, will remain open despite its troubles.

“The reorganization of Sappington Farmers Market will allow the store to remain open and viable,” said Nancy Smith, the market’s manager, in a written statement. “We feel this will position us to be successful in the future.”

Smith didn’t provide an interview.

The store, on Watson Road in Marlborough, has roots going back to the early 1980s, and has been at its present location since 1995 where it has gained a loyal following of bargain hunters and proponents of local farming.

The store’s mission has long been to support area farmers by featuring their products.

In her statement released Saturday, Smith said the store would continue to feature local farmers, and would continue distributing their products not only through the store, but through schools, restaurants and a “mobile market instant payday loans.”

The store’s founder, Tessa Greenspan, sold it in 2008 to a cooperative of small-scale farmers known as the Missouri Farmers Union, which formed a company called Farm to Family Naturally LLC to buy the business.

Farm to Family Naturally, which does business as Sappington Farmers Market, was the organization that filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.

Members of the original cooperative who purchased the store have since left, according to employees.

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The General Motors plant in Wentzville has completed the hiring of 437 employees who will work a second shift that’s set to begin in early January, which will mark the first time in two years that the plant has run more than a single shift.

GM, which builds the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans in Wentzville, will add a second shift of van production on Jan.3, bringing the total employment at the plant to 1,940 hourly workers and 155 salaried employees.

Of the 437 hourly employees added for the second shift, 235 are new hires, said Tom Brune, UAW communications coordinator for Local 2250, which represents hourly workers at the plant. GM also recalled 38 employees to the plant and transferred 164 GM employees from across the country.

“It’s a long time coming,” Brune said about the second shift, which was announced in September as part of a new labor contract.

Plant manager John Dansby said many of the transferred employees planned to move their families to the St. Louis region over the holidays.

“We’ve gotten them familiar with the plant and have them working side by side with current employees to understand how we work and how the plant works,” he said of the new employees.

Recalling laid-off workers and preparing for a second shift has “been a great boost to morale,” Dansby added.

The second shift isn’t the only new development at the Wentzville plant. GM also plans to build the next generation of its Colorado midsize pickup there, which will bring an additional 1,260 hourly and salaried jobs in 2013.

To prepare for the line, the automaker plans to invest $380 million in the plant, including the construction of a 500,000-square-foot addition to the current 3.7 million square feet.

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Asian stocks fell Wednesday after the Federal Reserve offered no new initiatives to help a slowly recovering U.S. economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 percent to 8,498.63. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.5 percent at 1,854 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.7 percent to 18,326.98. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 percent to 4,184.80. Benchmarks in Singapore and Taiwan fell while mainland China rose.

U.S. stocks gave up gains Tuesday after the Fed released a policy statement that made clear it was not offering any new steps to help the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent to close at 11,954.94. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.9 percent to 1,225.73. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent to 2,579.27.

The Dow dropped more than 70 points in the last hour of trading and had risen as high as 126 points earlier Tuesday after two strong auctions of European debt. The Spanish government was able to sell short-term debt at much lower interest rates compared with a month ago, a signal that markets are becoming less fearful about the government’s ability to repay its debt.

And in its first sale of short-term bills, the European Financial Stability Fund raised 1.9 billion euros ($2.6 billion).

Still, investor sentiment remained fragile amid threats by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit ratings of 15 countries that use the euro because of the region’s debt crisis.

“We are likely to continue seeing some cautious trading as the threat of S&P coming out to issue some downgrades at some stage this week looms,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia.

“Some would argue that this is already priced in, but it will still likely rock the boat should it happen.”

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 28 cents to $99.86 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.37 to finish at $100.14 an ounce on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3031 from $1.3043 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 77.99 yen from 77.97 yen.

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