December NFP +155,000

Kind of a boring jobs report. The economy created 155,000 jobs last month which was very close to expectations. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.8%. It was just 2,000 jobs away from rounding up to 7.9%. The price of gold has dropped to a four-month low.

The details of the report paint a similarly solid but uninspiring picture. The unemployment rate was driven by a combination of more people entering the labor force, 192,000 of them, a gain not matched by the number of people reporting having a job. If that pattern were to continue, it would eventually push the jobless rate up even as employers create new positions. A broader measure of unemployment that captures people working part time who want a full-time job and those who have given up looking for work out of frustration was unchanged at 14.4 percent.

The employment gains were relatively broad, with an 25,000 rise in manufacturing employment and a welcome 30,000 gain in construction jobs. Those might, in part, reflect a ramp-up in activity to rebuild following Hurricane Sandy, but the construction gain in particular is a welcome change after months in which the sectors job tally hasn’t kept up with a rise in homebuilding.

fredgraph01042013

Posted by on January 4th, 2013 at 9:39 am


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