A total of 155K jobs were created in December according to the government agency. This was slightly below estimates and in-line with what most economists had targeted for the month.
Here are the highlights and lowlights:
- The private sector created 168K jobs and the government lost 13K jobs
- Good to see it is private sector and not government
- During the fourth quarter the government sector lost 89K jobs
- The unemployment rate was revised here in November to 7.8% and it remained there in December
- The real rate is double-digits if the Americans that dropped out of the workforce were put back in. Also the same rate when Obama took office.
- Average Hourly Workweek increased by 0.1 to 34.5 hours
- Step in the right direction.
- Average Hourly Earnings up $0.07 to $23.73 - up 2.1% year-over-year
- Moving higher, but need a better annual increase.
- Labor Force Participation Rate steady at 63.6%
- When only about 2/3 of the American population that qualifies to work under this statistic are actually working it is a disgrace. And this is another reason the unemployment number is so high.
- U-6 number at 14.4%
- This is the number of people unemployed plus part-time workers that want full-time jobs and job seekers that gave up on looking for work. The number is lower than the 15.2% last year, but still way too high for a robust economic recovery.
- The average monthly jobs created in the last two years is 153K - December was right in-line
- There is not upward movement. The labor market is stagnant. At this point in time in a recovery the number should be above 300K (a number it needs to be at to keep up with demand for jobs and to bring down the unemployment number).
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