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Nonfarm payrolls rose by 199,000 jobs last month, the Labor
Department said in its closely watched employment report on
Friday. Data for November was revised up to show payrolls
advancing by 249,000 jobs instead of the previously reported
210,000. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% from 4.2% in
November, underscoring tightening labor market conditions.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by
400,000 and the unemployment rate dipping to 4.1%. Payrolls
estimates ranged from as low as 150,000 to as high as 1.1
million jobs. The government revised household survey data,
which provides the jobless rate, for the last five years.
Still, the employment report sketched a picture of an economy
that closed 2021 on a high note, even if the public health
picture is not as improved as officials had hoped.
The below-expectations job gains in December likely reflect
labor shortages as well as anomalies with the so-called seasonal
adjustment, used by the government to strip out seasonal
fluctuations from the data.
The government said on Tuesday that there were 10.6 million job
openings
https://www.reuters.com/markets/
us/record-45-million-americans-quit-jobs-november-2022-01-04 at
the end of November.
It surveyed businesses and households for last month's
employment report in mid-December just as the Omicron variant
was barreling across the country.
The Omicron hit to payrolls is likely to be felt in January.
The United States reported nearly 1 million https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-reports-nearly-1-mln-covid-19-cases-day-setting-global-record-2022-01-04
new coronavirus infections on Monday, the highest daily tally of
any country in the world.
Airlines have canceled thousands of flights and some school
districts have suspended in-person learning. Some working
parents may have to take on childcare duties, with the reversion
to online learning.
People who are out sick or in quarantine and do not get paid
during the payrolls survey period are counted as unemployed even
if they still have a job with their employers.
There have been signs that some unemployed people were stepping
back into the labor market following the end of
government-funded jobless benefits early in the fall. But the
reentry could be slowed by soaring Omicron cases.
The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of
working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, has
been slow to improve since falling to multi-decade lows early in
the pandemic.
Economists at Goldman Sachs expect participation will remain
about half a percentage point below the pre-pandemic demographic
trend at the end of the year, with most of the early retirees
and some of the younger and middle-aged workers staying out.
The unemployment and participation rates are being closely
watched by the Federal Reserve as it prepares to start raising
interest rates this year. Minutes of the Fed's Dec. 14-15 policy
meeting published on Wednesday showed officials at the U.S.
central bank viewed the labor market as "very tight." https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-may-need-hike-rates-faster-reduce-balance-sheet-quickly-minutes-show-2022-01-05
Tightening labor market conditions are highlighted by rising
wages. Though inflation has outpaced wage gains, many consumers
have continued to spend because of massive savings and increased
job security, underpinning the economy. Growth last year is
expected to have been the best since 1984.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Burns and Chizu
Nomiyama)
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