WHOA! Job creation surges in December

CNBC ^ | 01/08/2016 | Jeff Cox

[SeekAndFind]

The U.S. economy closed out 2015 with a huge round of job creation.

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 292,000 during December, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday that showed employment momentum as the year wound down. The unemployment rate was 5 percent. A separate, more encompassing measure that accounts for those who did not look for work in the past month or were working part time for economic reasons -- the underemployed -- head steady as well, at 9.9 percent.

Economists had been expecting 200,000 new positions and the unemployment rate to hold steady. Stock market futures temporarily jumped after the report, with Wall Street bidding Friday to halt the worst market start in history. Government bond yields edged higher, with the benchmark 10-year note yielding about 2.18 percent.

The one disappointment from the report came in wages, which actually fell slightly. Average hourly earnings declined 1 cent, translating to an annualized gain of 2.5 percent. Economists had been expecting a gain of 0.2 percent monthly and 2.8 percent annualized.

The reason for the weak wage data could be because job creation was greatest in professional and business services, which added 73,000, 34,000 of which were temporary positions likely added in conjunction with holiday hiring. The average work week was unchanged at 34.5 hours.

[SeekAndFind]

And for those who keep watch on the LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE, here's some good news:

labor force participation rate, which has remained mired at lows not seen since the late 1970s, edged higher to 62.6 percent.

[Cyman]

I know a lot of local kids had jobs at the Christmas tree lots. That must be it.

[EagleUSA]

And the media NEVER reports on “JOBS LOST” or those who have stopped looking for work. Just more lies.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Lots of jobs created in December.

Snow jobs.
Screw jobs.
Bl*w jobs.

etc. etc. etc.

[txrefugee]

All those temp shipping jobs at Amazon, FedEx, UPS are gone now, so CNBC will not be celebrating when the next jobs report comes out at the end of January.

[blackdog]

I work with most the people in my department being over the age of 62. Not one of them plan on retiring in the next five years. So far they die before retiring.

The learning curve for a journeyman in our department to become useful is about two years. The only ones we managed to hire and keep as replacements were over the age of 50. The rest didn't like the demands of the job, hours, failed pre-hire drug tests, couldn't show up for work on time every day, failed work keys tests, or are just too dangerous to keep around.(high voltage electricity)

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Remember when news organizations didn’t use words like “WHOA!” in their headlines?

Obvious shill is obvious.

[Lagmeister]

Well, let’s see... December holiday hiring showed 17% went to immigrants. It takes 300k jobs just to keep up with the population increase. And, I am sure the labor participation change so slight it will be messaged back to the older number.

[chajin]

I know a lot of local kids had jobs at the Christmas tree lots.

Either they were pining for work, or their parents were needling them about it.

[DonaldC]

I believe it. Young people today, if they have a cell phone, game system, netflix and pizza, they don’t worry about much else. Things that may better themselves now or in the future is not on their radar. It is like they never grow up and put away childish things.

[chajin]

Remember when news organizations didn’t use words like “WHOA!” in their headlines?

Perhaps they meant "woe" and trusted the spell-checker...

In New England they would have to call up Bill Spellichek

[blackdog]

UPS hired tens of thousands of temp workers to assist drivers. They used maybe a few hundred. The rest sat on the cooked figures as seasonal hires but not getting any hours. Last week they began ending their ghost hires via mail notices and phone calls.

Fortunately they are union members now. No job, but union proud!

Me thinks this was an Obama whitehut game to tweak the numbers.

I know Fedex did something similar. I'm not sure about Amazon?

[LMAO]

December numbers were pretty decent.
It will be interesting if that sustains or if we see a decline next month or two.

Wages fell. GDP for 2015 expected to come in at less than 3%.

IOWs, the same sluggish recovery since June 2009

[Thorliveshere]

Awesome of the government to take credit for seasonal employment.

[blackdog]

At 14 I spent my summers as a laborer for an Italian Mason. I spent my school weekend nights as a prep cook in a restaraunt. My weekend days during the school year were spent pumping gas and doing oil changes.

I don't think I spent a single day not working from the age of 14 until I went to college. That was where I learned the useless and lazy flourish like invasive weeds in the rainy season.

[blackdog]

"credit for seasonal employment."

Obama's only use for Christmas............or I mean seasonal religion based anomalies.

Sorry!

[Tired of Taxes]

But how many more people were looking for seasonal work and weren’t hired? I was willing to work nights, weekends, and Thanksgiving and Christmas days, and I couldn’t even get an interview. While filling out one application, I saw other people walk into the store to ask about the status of their applications.

[hawaiianninja]

Yippee! I’ll let the unemployed and homeless piling up in my town the good news! /sarc

[goodnesswins]

What kind of work is it? I’m curious because I’m on a school board budget committee and hope to get more $$$ pointed toward tech/vocational

[USCG SimTech]

March those numbers will be “corrected” to reflect greater accuracy.