Gov't help on jobs?

The majority of economists in the latest WSJ survey say yes, though they were divided on what exactly government should do. Most of them called for some form of tax cut or credit, while a few others proposed more aid to state and local governments. A sizable number said government shouldn't do anything. The survey was taken before President Obama outlined his plan for job creation.

The economists may be divided on the government's role in spurring hiring, but there is broad agreement that there is a slow recovery for the jobs market. Just four respondents expected the unemployment rate to drop below 9% by December of next year, and the average forecast remained at 9.6% despite a much better than expected Commerce Department report on employment in November that showed a decline in the jobless rate to 10%. The economists, on average, expect the economy to start adding about 100,000 jobs a month over the next year, but that figure, which basically represents the number of jobs that need to be created in order to make up for new entrants into the work force, won't do much to bring down the unemployment rate.