Posted on 01/04/2019 6:03:16 AM PST by ScottinVA
Job creation ended 2018 on a powerful note, with nonfarm payrolls surging by 312,000 in December though the unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent.
The jobless rate, which was last higher in June, rose for the right reason as 419,000 new workers entered the workforce and the labor force participation rate increased to 63.1 percent. The participation level was up 0.2 percentage points from November and 0.4 percentage points compared with a year earlier.
A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons held steady at 7.6 percent.
In addition to the big job gains, wages jumped 3.2 percent from a year ago and 0.4 percent over the previous month. The year-over-year increase is tied with October for the best since April 2009. The average work week rose 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting job growth of just 176,000, though they projected the unemployment rate to fall to 3.6 percent. The wage number also was well above expectations of 3 percent on the year and 0.3 percent from November.
The report, released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, comes amid concern over whether the U.S. economy is part of a global deceleration, despite turning in its best year since the Great Recession.
Data released this week showed a key manufacturing mark hitting a two-year low and mortgage volume at its lowest in 18 years.
The jobs market, however, remains hot.
Payrolls growth totaled 2.6 million in 2018, the highest since 2015 and well above the 2.2 million in 2017.
Health care led the way in new jobs, adding 50,000 for the month thanks to 38,000 new positions in ambulatory services and 7,000 more in hospitals. The industry saw a boom of 346,000 for the year, compared with a 284,000 gain the year before.
Restaurants and bars added 41,000 to the close the year with a 235,000 gain, down from 261,000 in 2017.
Construction also was one of the big gainers despite a slumping housing market. The industry added 38,000 jobs in December, bringing the annual total to 280,000, a 12 percent gain from 2017's 250,000.
Manufacturing also tuned in a solid 32,000 gain for the month, with the bulk of the growth coming from the 19,000 positions added in the key durable goods sector. The sector also saw a surge in 2018, with the 284,000 new positions representing a 37 percent rise from the previous year.
Another closely watched sector, retail, posted growth of 24,000 thanks to a holiday season boost. For the year, retail added 92,000, reversing the loss of 29,000 in 2017.
Government jobs saw a gain of 11,000.
Previous months also saw positive revisions, adding to the upbeat tone for the year. November saw its disappointing 155,000 original report revised up to 176,000, while October's count went from 274,000 to 237,000, for a net gain of 58,000 from the previous tallies.
Those revisions brought the three-month average up to a strong 254,000.
The report comes at a time of heightened market concerns over the Federal Reserve's future path. The U.S. central bank raised interest rates four times in 2018 in an effort to prevent the economy from overheating, but President Donald Trump has criticized the Fed for endangering the economic recovery.
Futures traders expect the Fed to hold steady through the year, and in fact are pricing in a 45 percent of a rate cut by the end of 2019.
“it ain’t a rose garden.” you are forgetting the dirty little secret...if you are a member of a protected class, your application for SSD/SSI goes sailing through no questions asked. If you are a member of the “opressor” class aka caucasian, your application gets sandbagged from the get go.
Very much akin to the Lois Lerner situation.
today’s 4 yr college degree is probably equivalent to that 50 year old in the 70’s SECOND grade education.
These young people are being indoctrinated with Marxism AND robbed.
I think your memory is failing, you retired in ‘98 with 22 years which means you were a child when I enlisted in ‘62. MY pay started at $69. a month. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what the dollar amount is, what counts is what it will buy. I went to electronics school on Treasure Island for 38 weeks during which my pay grew to barely $100. a month and I had money to enjoy my weekends in San Francisco. Think about that.
Aha! But DoD started taking out state taxes in 1976.
Gobbled up a big chunk for single men without dependents.
I switched my home of record to Florida a year later.
Yes, I have heard a lot of stories like that, maybe it is easier to get approved in other areas than South Carolina. I have also heard stories of people getting disability social security for drug addiction but if you read the law it says that alcohol or drug addiction is a DISqualifier. My wife had at least three verifiable conditions which are listed as AUTOMATIC qualifiers but it took twelve years of appeals to get her approved. One judge said that the doctors were “not credible”, the mistake that led to her finally being approved was when one judge looked at my wife and in front of council, told her that she didn’t “look sick”.
What was your starting pay before taxes? Gross, not net, mine was $69. in 1962.
For some reason my IPhone “News” widget always includes articles from HuffPost Canada. Not sure why because they are anti-Trump 24/7. Anyways here in Canada if you rely on the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, or HuffPo, you would never know the US economy was the rocket it is.
The tech surge is the number one reason to give me pause. We have seen this before. Can you imagine buying a private business that took 200 years to recoup your investment? But that is the PE ratio of Netflix. I give Netflix has the benefit of having some room in pricing. Their price increase here in Canada from $14 to $17 won’t obviously cause me to toss the service. $30 would probably be my limit. But they are spending money like crazy. Didn’t we see this in the run up to 2000? Major cash drains on tech companies?
I agree the Fed’s official mandate is not and should not be the equity markets; however, that is how it has acted since the Clinton years. It provided rock bottom interest rates for one single reason. To support the equity markets.
5 year old dryer and already needed the pulley replaced. “Common” problem for Whirlpools said the repair man. I always hear how “older” parents are just replacing their 30 year old dryer or washer!!!! I have never had anything last 30 years. Perhaps their is a COST to made in China.
A friend of my inlaws bought a brand new washer and dryer.
She was giving away her 15 year old Hotpoint Dryer. I went over picked it up and have been using it for three years. The only thing it needed was a new lint screen for $25. I also took off the back panel and cleaned it out with the shop vac.
Dryers are a very simple machine. Its a drum, a belt, a motor and a heater. The problems usually result from the new electronics on them. Give me a old one with the knob you only turn clockwise.
Yes the motherboard on our DW went. Pretty much a death sentence for a dishwasher.
We had the same thing happen with our first Fisher-Paykel washer machine after six years. It was $250 just for the part, so we bought a whole new machine for $600ish.
Exactly. And you have to buy a mid range model to just get metal in your dishwasher. Low range models are 99% plastic.
Yes, I know. We bought the $600 Kitchenaid just to get a Stainless Steel interior. Boy, it sure is quiet though.
The only kitchen appliances that are much better than the used to be are the French door refrigerator designs. We have a Kenmore(Whirlpool actually) that is very roomy and lowered our electric bill about $20/month in comparison to the old side by side. Just don’t get the ice maker through the door. That is where the repairs come from according to the local repairman.
Good point. We have had a tough year of unforeseen expenses so we got a fridge from a used appliance place. Never hooked up the ice maker - well, we would need to re-plumb anyways to do it - and thought no point as never know when fridge will crap out on us.
FWIW, We are in Canada so things are a little different. Outside of healthcare, the cost of living seems much easier in the US than here.
As for your tech, you’re missing a lot of innovations.
1) Quantum Computing. It’s heading to massive.
2) AI. It is revolutionizing how we code, how we percieve and frankly, there will be some incredible changes in that tech in the next few years.
3) Cloud. It’s incredible that we’ve got the next gen of industry revolution and people who get on board the tech will find themselves in great position to build careers off of it.
4) Bidirectional web. In the 90’s we had “Client-Server” applications that revolutionized the business world. Now that HTML5 has taken hold in significant roll-out numbers, we are seeing some HTML5 based technologies that are are allowing for “client-server web”. Microsoft dipped their toe in early with SignalR, but there are many techs now that do bidirectional support, and it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing revolutionary apps that will significantly alter our perceptions of how apps work.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.