:00:00. > :00:00.of democracy. Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News. Now
:00:00. > :00:17.for the latest financial news with Alice Baxter and world Business
:00:18. > :00:22.Report. US jobs figures may show hiring hit an eight-year high last
:00:23. > :00:27.year. But can it make a dent in America's long-term unemployment?
:00:28. > :00:30.Plus - China's annual trade passes the four trillion dollar mark -
:00:31. > :00:40.confirming its position as the world's biggest trading nation.
:00:41. > :00:45.Welcome to world Business Report. I'm Alice Baxter. Also in the
:00:46. > :00:49.programme - why the art of dyeing fabrics is a dying art in Nigeria.
:00:50. > :00:57.The last in our series on vanishing professions. But first - the health
:00:58. > :01:04.of the US economy is the focus for global financial markets this
:01:05. > :01:07.Friday. Specifically, is it creating enough new jobs for the Federal
:01:08. > :01:13.Reserve to further wind down its stimulus programme - or even
:01:14. > :01:15.consider raising interest rates? In a few hour's time the US government
:01:16. > :01:20.releases its monthly employment figures for December. Here are the
:01:21. > :01:23.numbers we are looking for. US employers are expected to have
:01:24. > :01:30.created 196,000 new jobs in December - according to economists polled by
:01:31. > :01:35.Reuters. That would be another strong month. But possibly not
:01:36. > :01:38.enough to bring the jobless rate down any further from the 7% it hit
:01:39. > :01:42.in November - that's a five-year low. Remember, the Federal Reserve
:01:43. > :01:53.wants to see unemployment down at 6.5% before even it considers
:01:54. > :01:57.raising interest rates. Still - that would bring the total jobs created
:01:58. > :02:00.last year to more than two and a quarter million. That would be the
:02:01. > :02:03.best year for job creation since 2005. But as Samira Hussain reports
:02:04. > :02:15.from New York, all this is little consolation to America's millions of
:02:16. > :02:18.long-term unemployed. This woman has been out of work for nine months.
:02:19. > :02:24.She is exhausted her unemployment benefits and has very little left in
:02:25. > :02:28.the bank. One day I woke up and was not as positive as I once was. I was
:02:29. > :02:32.wondering, what was wrong with me that I was not able to find a job.
:02:33. > :02:37.It starts to get you down on yourself. I've gone through this
:02:38. > :02:43.will fits of depression here and there. It is difficult. It is a
:02:44. > :02:47.struggle. I'm not the type to not work. I need to be a productive
:02:48. > :02:52.member of society and be around people. She does not have a job
:02:53. > :02:56.interview today but is going out to personally drop off the resume at a
:02:57. > :03:02.company she knows has an opening. Her way of setting herself apart
:03:03. > :03:08.from the competition. This career coaches seeming -- seen many people
:03:09. > :03:11.like her. Although the job market is improving in America prospects are
:03:12. > :03:17.tough the longer you have been out of work. Imagine if he had been out
:03:18. > :03:21.for six months, or even two gears and you are competing against
:03:22. > :03:24.individuals who are freshly unemployed or given that the market
:03:25. > :03:29.is opening up, people who are working and looking to make a change
:03:30. > :03:32.and competing against those folks. There are 4 million Americans who
:03:33. > :03:37.have been out of work for six months or longer. The sheer numbers of
:03:38. > :03:41.long-term unemployed as having a ripple effect in the US economy.
:03:42. > :03:48.These workers are not earning to their full potential. It is less
:03:49. > :03:54.money in their pockets that they can spend on groceries, clothing, gas,
:03:55. > :03:59.bills, rent, mortgages. All things that are a drag on the economy. It
:04:00. > :04:04.is this kind of spending that creates more employment in the first
:04:05. > :04:08.place. Despite the months of searching, she remains optimistic.
:04:09. > :04:18.Perhaps the next time she walks into this building, she will do it as an
:04:19. > :04:21.employee. Let's move to China now - where official trade data for
:04:22. > :04:28.December was released in the last few hours. It shows China's annual
:04:29. > :04:31.trade passed the $4 trillion dollar mark for the first time in 2013,
:04:32. > :04:34.confirming its position as the world's biggest trading nation. A
:04:35. > :04:37.big jump in imports - goods coming into China - in December has also
:04:38. > :04:47.given reassurance about the state of the country's domestic economy.
:04:48. > :04:49.Remember - China is trying to rebalance its economy away from
:04:50. > :04:59.exports being the world's factory and more towards domestic spending.
:05:00. > :05:05.Sharanjit Leyl has been following the story for us in Singapore. With
:05:06. > :05:09.imports with imports sharply up, chose domestic consumption is very
:05:10. > :05:14.robust in China? It does to some extent. Those were better than
:05:15. > :05:17.expected growth numbers for imports that are helping to raise sentiment
:05:18. > :05:24.in what was a very mixed bag of numbers. Imports rising 8.3% from
:05:25. > :05:30.the previous year indicating that strong domestic demand but still we
:05:31. > :05:35.saw exports rising by a weaker than expected annual rate of just over
:05:36. > :05:41.4%. That marked a slowdown from the over 12% growth we saw in November
:05:42. > :05:45.for exports. Going back to the import numbers, we know they are
:05:46. > :05:50.crucial because it does mean there is a strong domestic demand in
:05:51. > :05:52.China. Something the government is counting on in a big effort to
:05:53. > :05:58.restructure the economy. They want to try to move away from being so
:05:59. > :06:02.export reliant, export and manufacturing are key drivers of
:06:03. > :06:07.China's growth for decades but there has been a slowdown in key markets
:06:08. > :06:13.like the US and Europe which has impacted the growth rate in recent
:06:14. > :06:25.years. Having said that, for 2014, the numbers for exports have gone up
:06:26. > :06:28.8%. Now - all this week we've been looking at vanishing professions -
:06:29. > :06:31.jobs that are dying out with changes in the economy or developments in
:06:32. > :06:34.technology. For the last in our series, we travel to northern
:06:35. > :06:36.Nigeria, where a textile business that dates back to the 15th Century
:06:37. > :06:47.is threatened with extinction. Reporter Tomi Oladipo brings us this
:06:48. > :06:51.report from the Kofar dye pits. For more than 500 years, not an awful
:06:52. > :06:55.lot has changed at this business. Artisans have worked in different
:06:56. > :07:02.fabrics, weaving them and dipping them into the sty pits. The pits go
:07:03. > :07:06.down sometimes six metres deep. It has -- it is an art that has been
:07:07. > :07:13.handed down over the generations. One person who would know that very
:07:14. > :07:22.well is Haroun Baffa. He is a seventh generation dying Artisan. We
:07:23. > :07:27.put normal water over the feed. We get some ash from the fire. We put
:07:28. > :07:34.it over the peat and leave at three days. Then it goes in to go. You
:07:35. > :07:42.prepare the solution for three days? Yes, three days. We soak the fabric
:07:43. > :07:45.inside the solution. In the Indigo. The plant has grown outside the city
:07:46. > :07:50.and is needed to create the distinct colour. To make these patterns, part
:07:51. > :07:55.of the cloth is tied with string and dipped in the die. The fabric is
:07:56. > :08:00.popular for special Muslim occasions but apart from that it is hardly a
:08:01. > :08:04.thriving market. People want wider varieties of fabrics to choose from
:08:05. > :08:09.and these days they are found from around the world. Clothes come from
:08:10. > :08:13.as far as China and India and they are affordable for the average
:08:14. > :08:18.shopper. That means there is no market for the local textile
:08:19. > :08:26.industry. You cannot really wear that traditional stuff every day. It
:08:27. > :08:32.is for a special occasion. These are casual and they cost less. Money is
:08:33. > :08:37.an issue. The ongoing insurgency has made northern Nigeria off-limits for
:08:38. > :08:41.buyers. Before the crisis, we had plenty of visitors to come to see.
:08:42. > :08:47.He says before the violence, customers came every few days. But
:08:48. > :08:50.now no one shows up for months. The ancient form from Thai and I has
:08:51. > :09:07.been around for generations but it has never been as much under threat
:09:08. > :09:11.as it has been now. An Indian software giant has raised its
:09:12. > :09:20.forecast as outsourcing demand has recovered. Improving US and European
:09:21. > :09:27.economies has revived demand for its hundred billion dollar outsourcing
:09:28. > :09:30.industry. A US court will hear two conflicting plans for bankrupt
:09:31. > :09:32.electric car firm Fisker on Friday. Chinese auto parts firm Wanxiang
:09:33. > :09:36.Group and Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li are both creditors who
:09:37. > :09:42.want to take control of the company - which filed for bankruptcy
:09:43. > :09:47.protection in November. America is the focus of those job numbers for
:09:48. > :09:52.global markets everywhere. They weighed on the Asian markets which
:09:53. > :10:19.were soggy today after Chinese trade day be a mixed bag. The papers are
:10:20. > :10:20.next. A