Santa left an early present in Donald Trump’s stocking — via the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job creation in November hit a one-year high and marked only the third time in 2019 that the US economy added more than 200,000 jobs in a month. The unemployment rate remained low, although the civilian participation rate dropped slightly.
Part of the gain came from the end of an auto-worker strike, but even without that, job creation would have been relatively robust and well over 200K:
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 266,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in health care and in professional and technical services. Employment rose in manufacturing, reflecting the return of workers from a strike.
Both the unemployment rate, at 3.5 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 5.8 million, changed little in November. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.2 percent), adult women (3.2 percent), teenagers (12.0 percent), Whites (3.2 percent), Blacks (5.5 percent), Asians (2.6 percent), and Hispanics (4.2 percent) showed little or no change in November. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.2 million, was essentially unchanged in November and accounted for 20.8 percent of the unemployed. (See table A12.)
The labor force participation rate was little changed at 63.2 percent in November. The employment-population ratio was 61.0 percent for the third consecutive month. (See table A-1.)
The revisions also added to the holiday joy, boosting previous job creation numbers by 41,000 over the past two months. That puts the three-month average for job creation at a respectable growth level of 205,000. That also more or less negates the impact of the strike, which took place entirely within that three-month period, meaning job growth has returned to a healthier level at the close of 2019.
Wage growth also continued its winning streak. Average hourly earnings in November went up by seven cents, which annualizes to wage growth of 3.1%, well ahead of inflation. That means consistent, if not spectacular, growth in purchasing power for working families, a point that will not be lost on those families if that continues through next November.
Another hint of better job growth came in the part-time numbers, which declined across the board but especially in the economic-reasons categories. Those working part-time because of slack economic conditions dropped by 121,000, while those who could only find part-time work dropped by another 19,000. The level of reported discouraged workers dropped by 16,000 from October and has fallen by 128,000 over the past year, although those numbers are not seasonally adjusted.
This might be the least equivocal jobs report we have seen in quite a long time, maybe even since 2017. It comes at a particularly good time for Trump, not just in the election cycle but also in contrast to impeachment. We can expect the White House to argue that this shows Trump is focused on the people while the Democrats in Congress are focusing only on themselves — and if that’s not a message that’s already out by the time this post goes up, someone in the White House comms center needs to find a new job.
More at: https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morri...ber-best-year/
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