Quick Facts:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 199,000 in December.
- Unemployment rate edged down by 0.3 percentage points to 3.9 percent.
- Employment continued to trend up in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing.
- The number of unemployed persons decreased by 483,000 to 6.3 million.
- The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 185,000 to 2.0 million in December.
- The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was little changed at 5.7 million in December.
Looking Forward:
- Hiring slowed significantly at the end of last year, a stark indication that employers are struggling to fill positions even as the United States remains millions of jobs short of pre-pandemic levels.
- Economists said the report increased the chances that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates quickly to cool off the economy, since wage growth threatens to keep prices increasing as businesses try to cover their climbing labor costs.
- The report on Friday came with an important caveat: The data was collected in mid-December, before the pandemic’s latest wave revealed its strength. Since then, the Omicron variant has ignited a steep rise in coronavirus cases, driving up hospitalizations and keeping people home from work.
- There is widespread optimism that the Omicron surge will be short-lived and that the economy will then regain momentum. But economists are bracing for the surge in cases to curtail job growth in January and in the coming months.
- There is plenty of evidence of momentum underlying the uneven economic recovery, and signs abound that jobs are numerous even if workers are hard to find. The share of people quitting their jobs just touched a record, and ashortfall of workers has caused many businesses to curtail hours or services.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
