December Unemployment Review

BLS December Unemployment Report Review

Non Farm Payroll increases by 155,000 and the unemployment rate was calculated at 7.8%. There was growth in construction, manufacturing, healthcare and bars and restaurants. The big news was a $0.07 cent monthly jump in average hourly wages or an annual rise of $0.84 cents !

In political unemployment news, everyone was distracted by “fiscal cliff” negotiations and ignored the unemployment report. Extended unemployment benefits were continued for 2013 for the more than 2 million long-term unemployed. As large numbers of the unemployed return to look for work, the employment rate seems to a have reached a trough around 7.8%. The number of new jobs is now closely matching the growth of the labor force. Both the Employment to Population ratio (58.6) and the participation rate 63.6% have barely moved in the past year.

 Household Survey Results for December

The household data survey reported that the total labor force expanded by 58,000 while the number employed expanded by 159,000 found jobs. The black unemployment rate bounced up to 14% from 13.2% last month. The reported black labor increased by 29,000 but -125,000 less black people said they were working. Black employment was 15,827,000 workers. Black teenage unemployment was 40% versus 21% for whites and 27% (Non-SA) for Hispanics.

Unemployment dropped again for Hispanic/Latinos to 9.5%. The white rate remained fixed at 6.8%

The long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) was 4.766 million people which represents 39% of the unemployed. The median duration of unemployment was 18 weeks(a drop of 1 week) while the average duration was 38.1 weeks(a drop of two weeks). So, some good progress for the hardcore unemployed.

 The “work part-time, wants full-time,” number was 7.9 million. These people are considered under employed. About 2.6 million workers were marginally attached to the labor pool. They have looked for work in the last 12 months but not in the last four weeks. And there were 1,068K discouraged workers (part of marginally attached) who are not looking because they believe there is no jobs for them.

Non-Farm Payrolls

Non-farm payrolls add a solid 155,000 jobs overall and the private sector added 168,000 jobs. The government lost -14,000 jobs at the local level. Job growth came from construction, manufacturing, healthcare and leisure and hospitality. The losers were information technology and local government.

Non-farm payrolls were revised in October upward to +138K from 137K and for November from 146K to 161K. A net increase of 16K jobs.

 The average work week was at 34.5 hours and wages added 7 cent in December.

 *** ADP reported an increase in private payrolls of 215,000 positions for December.