Employers added more workers in December than they had in any month since February. Here are the five things we learned from U.S. economic data released during the week ending January 4.
Note that the partial shutdown of the federal government has and will delay the release of certain economic data reports.
Job creation accelerated in December. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates nonfarm employers added 312,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the month, the most since last February. In addition, the BLS added a combined 58,000 jobs to its previously reported estimates of October and November job creation. The resulting 2.64 million workers added over the past 12 months made 2018 the best year for job creation since 2015 and continued the nine-year winning streak in terms of employment gains. The private sector added 301,000 jobs during December, with health care/social assistance, leisure/hospitality, professional/business services, construction, and manufacturing leading the way. Average hourly earnings have risen 3.2 percent over the past year to $27.48. Average weekly earnings also have grown 3.2 percent over the past year, in this case to $948.06.
Based on a separate household survey, the unemployment rate increased by 2/10ths of a percentage point to 3.9 percent. But this gain is more of a good news story as 419,000 people had entered the labor market during the month. The labor force participation rate also grew by 2/10ths of a percentage point to 63.1 percent (December 2017: 62.7 percent). The median length of unemployment edged up by 1/10th of a week to 9.1 weeks (December 2017: 8.9 weeks) while the number of part-time workers seeking a full-time opportunity dropped by 24,000 to 4.657 million (December 2017: 4.986 million). Finally, the broadest measure of labor underutilization by the BLS (the U-6 series) stayed near its post-recession low at 7.6 percent (December 2017: 8.1 percent).
Payroll company data showed the same. Private sector employment expanded by a seasonally adjusted 271,000 jobs in December, per the ADP National Employment Report. The report, based on data flowing through payroll systems of 411,000 ADP clients, finds jobs growth among large (+54,000 jobs), medium (+129,000), and small-sized (+89,000) businesses. The service sector added 224,000 workers while the goods-producing side of the economy added 47,000 jobs. The press release noted, “the busy holiday season greatly impacted both trade and leisure and hospitality.”
Jobless claims grew during Christmas week but remained very low. The Department of Labor reports that the number of first-time claims made for unemployment insurance benefits increased by 10,000 during the week ending December 29 to a seasonally adjusted 231,000. Relative to the same week a year earlier, this was down by 17,000 claims. The four-week moving average of first-time claims was at 218,750, 8.9 percent below the moving average of the final week of 2017. A total of 1.794 million people were receiving some form of unemployment insurance benefits during the week ending December 15, down 11.2 percent from the same week a year earlier.
An outplacement firm reports rising job cuts in 2018. The 2018 Challenger Report indicates that announced job cuts rose 28.6 percent during the year to 538,659. This was the most announced job cuts since 2015 but well under the nearly 1.3 million announced layoffs in 2009. The count of announced layoffs during the final quarter of 2018 was 42.8 percent ahead of that from the final three months of 2017. The sectors with the largest number of reported job cuts in 2018 were retail, telecommunications, health care/products, and financial. The press release noted that most of the announced job cuts result from company restructuring, closings, and “voluntary” severance. It stressed that “large-scale job cut announcements due to these tariffs have yet to be announced, it seems.”
Manufacturing growth cooled in December, per purchasing managers. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), the headline index from the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Report on Business, dropped by 5.2 points to a reading of 54.1. This was the biggest single-month drop in the PMI in more than ten years and the measure’s lowest reading since 2016. Yet despite the drop, this was the 28th straight month in which the measure was above a reading of 50.0, indicative of an expanding manufacturing sector. All five components of the PMI declined during the month: new orders (down 11.0 points), production (down 6.3 points), supplier deliveries (down 5.0 points), employment (off 2.2 points), and inventories (down 1.7 points). Eleven of 18 tracked manufacturing industries grew during December, led by textiles, apparel, and transportation equipment. The press release states respondents’ comments noted “continued expanding business strength, but at much lower levels.”
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What We Learned About the U.S. Economy Last Week 