Working Thoughts

• Analysts expected neither a loss or a gain for the month
  
• October was revised to a loss of 127,000 from an original reading of 190,000 and revised reading of 111,000 (revised to final loss of 224,000)
  
• November was revised to a gain of 4,000 jobs (revised to a gain of 64,000)
  

• The first gain in 23 months
  

• 15.3 million people are unemployed and looking for work
  
• Temporary work, which usually precedes full time employment gains, added 46,500 jobs in December
• Major federal government hiring is planned for the spring as the census work gets underway
• Layoffs are flattening out, but hiring isn’t happening

Unemployment rate held steady at 10.0%

• Analysts predicted it would stay at 10.0%
  
• The Unemployment rate hit 10.8 in 1982
• 661,000 people dropped out of the count, otherwise the rate would be 10.4%
  

• The employment to population ratio dropped to 58.2 from 58.5
• As employment picks up, the labor pool will grow again and the unemployment rate will actually go up
  

• The U-6 report, which is a broader group, reached 17.3%
  
• The average length of unemployment is 29.1 weeks (a record)
  
• The median length of unemployment is 20.5 weeks (a record)

Specific Segment Job numbers:

• Manufacturing lost 27,000 jobs
• Construction lost 53,000 jobs
• Retailers lost 10,200
• Leisure and Hospitality Services lost 25,000 jobs
  
• Government sector lost 21,000
  
• Education and Health Services grew by 35,000 jobs

• Health Care and Social Assistance grew by 24,700
  

• Professional and Business Services grew by 50,000

• Temporary work added 46,500 jobs in December

Wage (can be revised):

• The average weekly paycheck (seasonally adjusted) is $624.16 – a drop from $631.48 in November
  
• The average hourly earning (seasonally adjusted) is $18.80 – up slightly more than 2 cents
  
• The average hourly work week stayed at 33.2
  

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Job Report Stats Summary