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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employment gains slowed more than expected in January as the boost to hiring from unseasonably mild weather faded, but rising wages and an unemployment rate at an eight-year low suggested the labor market recovery remains firm. Non-farm payrolls increased by 151,000 jobs and the unemployment rate slipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.9 percent, the lowest since February 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday. The payrolls gain was a sharp step-down from the average 231,000 jobs per month during the fourth quarter. "The fact that payroll gains fell back to earth is not necessarily...

With the Fed on the verge of a full relent and admission of policy error, the Fed's "data (in)dependent" monetary policy once again takes on secondary relevance as we progress into 2016. However, even with the overall job picture far less important, one aspect of the US jobs market is certain to take on an unprecedented importance. We first laid out what that is last September when we said that "the one chart that matters more than ever, has little to nothing to do with the Fed's monetary policy, but everything to do with the November 2016 presidential elections...

The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in January, a slowdown from recent months but still a sign of a solid job market. Employers raised pay, more people felt confident enough to look for work and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.9 percent, its lowest level since 2008. Friday's report from the Labor Department showed that the job market remains a vital support for an economy that is struggling in areas such as manufacturing and is facing weakness overseas. It provides a key piece of evidence for the Federal Reserve, which is weighing whether to raise interest rates again after lifting...

An analysis undertaken by the Tax Foundation estimates that the tax increases promised by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-Vt) will cut economic growth by more than 9% and result in 6 million fewer full-time jobs. "Sanders' plan would significantly increase marginal tax rates on capital and labor income, which would result in a substantial reduction of the size of the U.S. economy in the long run," authors Alan Cole and Scott Greenberg asserted. Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver pooh-poohed the report quoting economist John Maynard Keynes' observation that "in the long run we are all dead. At 74...

Having surged to six-month highs, initial jobless claims dropped modestly on the week but the smoother 4-week average that is broadly used pushed to new cycle highs at 285k - the highest since March 2015 confirming The Fed's concerns over the economy. This is a trend that is certainly not the friend of Janet and her friends... but we are sure this is all just transitory.  

The major media has morphed from a watchdog to a lapdog barking on cue that everything is all right, there's nothing to see here, move along Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal...

New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits jumped to a seven-month high last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Initial jobless claims rose by 10,000 to 293,000 in the week ending January 16, the highest level since early July. But claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, have remained below 300,000 since late February 2015 as the jobs market tightens. Analysts say volatility is typical in the first weeks of the year. The four-week moving average for claims rose by 6,500 to 285,000. A year ago it was 298,250. The US economy added 2.65 million jobs in 2015, the...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman said Wednesday that projections for rising global unemployment over the next two years are "alarming" and the U.N. chief will keep pushing for job opportunities, especially for youth. The comments from deputy spokesman Farhan Haq were in response to a new report from the U.N. labor agency projecting that the number of unemployed people will increase by nearly 2.3 million in 2016 and 1.1 million in 2017 as a result of the global economic slowdown last year. Haq said Ban has been raising the need for new jobs in discussions with business leaders and others at...

Numbers from Friday’s jobs report underscores a persistent problem for the U.S. economy: Wages aren’t growing fast enough for most Americans. According to the data for December, the average wage for all workers grew at 2.5 percent over the last year, before accounting for inflation. Healthy wage growth would be somewhere in the range of 3.5-4 percent. How can we get to that level of wage growth? A number of proposals have been floated by economists and politicians across the political spectrum. But there’s one minor fix we can implement that could have major implications: allow workers who quit their...

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America . ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 5.6%. COSTELLO: That many people are out of work? ABBOTT: No, that's 23%. COSTELLO: You just said 5.6%. ABBOTT: 5.6% Unemployed. COSTELLO: Right 5.6% out of work. ABBOTT: No, that's 23%. COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 23% unemployed. ABBOTT: No, that's 5.6%. COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 5.6% or 23%? ABBOTT: 5.6% are unemployed. 23% are out of work. COSTELLO: If you are out of work you are unemployed. ABBOTT: No, Obama said you can't count the "Out of Work" as the...

President Obama on Saturday unveiled an unemployment insurance plan that he says will provide stability and opportunity to workers in a rapidly changing economy. The president's three-pronged plan includes wage insurance of up to $10,000 over two years, expanded unemployment insurance coverage and more opportunities for laid off workers to retrain and reenter the workforce. "If a hardworking American loses her job, regardless of what state she lives in, we should make sure she can get unemployment insurance and some help to retrain for her next job," Obama said in his weekly address. "It's a way to give families some...

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but remained below levels associated with a healthy labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 for the week ended Jan. 9, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were unrevised.Still, it was the 45th consecutive week that claims remained below the 300,000 mark, which is associated with strong labor market conditions. That is the longest such stretch since the early 1970s. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 275,000 in the latest week. The increase...

The obvious candidates for word of the year are the labels of the year's big stories -- new words like "microaggression" or resurgent ones like "refugees." But sometimes a big theme is captured in more subtle ways. So for my word of the year, I offer you the revival of "gig" as the name for a new economic order. It's the last chapter in the life of a little word that has tracked the rise and fall of the great American job. "Gig" goes back more than a century as musicians' slang for a date or engagement. Nobody's sure where...

Friday's "Employment Situation" report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that December was a very good month for jobs. FTE* employment rose by 481,000. This complemented the unexpectedly large increase of 292,000 in payroll employment. Labor force participation edged upward in December, providing welcome relief from the relentless slide of this important indicator that has occurred during the Obama years. Unfortunately, December's numbers may very well be the last hurrah for jobs, as the economy slips into recession. It is worrisome that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 2.23% during 2015, after rising during each of the...

Macy's is slashing jobs, a harbinger of hard times for retailers after a holiday season that saw a noticeable shift to online shopping and away from physical stores. The nation's largest department store chain, which also operates Bloomingdale's, said late Wednesday it is cutting up to 4,800 jobs and trimming its profit outlook after a miserable holiday season. "I think Macy's is likely to be a canary in a coal mine," said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics, a retail research firm. He said retailers witnessed an acceleration of the shift toward online and mobile holiday spending in 2015. About...

Here’s a newsflash that CNBC didn’t mention. According to the BLS, the US economy generated a miniscule 11,000 jobs in the month of December.Yet notwithstanding the fact that almost nobody works outdoors any more, the BLS fiction writers added 281,000 to their headline number to cover the “seasonal adjustment.” This is done on the apparent truism that December is generally colder than November and that workers get holiday vacations.Of course, this December was much warmer, not colder, than average. And that’s not the only deviation from normal seasonal trends.The Christmas selling season this year, for example, was absolutely not comparable...

We needed some good news in an otherwise grim week for the economy and stocks and got it in a blockbuster report showing 292,000 new hires in December and a 50,000 upward revision from previous months. The alternative measure used by the Department of Labor based on the household survey, showed job growth was even swifter, with a gain of 485,000. Best of all, nearly half a million Americans on net entered the labor force, helping reverse for now a horrid slide in labor market participation. The participation rate now stands at 62.6%, up from 62.4% in September. But we're...

Earlier we gave a big picture explanation how the US can add 292,000 while average hourly wages actually decline. Below is a more nuanced answer, looking at the breakdown of jobs by industry in December.  It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that for another consecutive month, the well-paying jobs: mining and logging, wholesale trade, manufacturing, and information barely posted a net increase. Alternatively, the worst quality jobs continued to soar, pushed higher once again by none other than education and health, where Obamacare was once again instrumental to propel healthcare jobs by a 52,600 surge in...

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...

If this comes close to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Friday, it will signal a decent if unspectacular start to the New Year. ADP estimates that employers added 257,000 private-sector jobs last month, an increase of 40,000 jobs over its estimate for November, and the best result for all of 2015: Private sector employment increased by 257,000 jobs from November to December according to the December ADP National Employment Report®. Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by ADP® in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which...