- December nonfarm payrolls: -140K vs. +75K consensus and +336K previous (revised from +245K).
- Unemployment rate: 6.7% vs. 6.8% consensus and 6.7% prior.
- The decline, the first since April, reflects the recent increase in coronavirus cases and efforts to contain the pandemic. That reinforces the message that Fed Chair Jay Powell has been making since the pandemic started — that the economy will follow the course of the virus. As such, expect more job losses in January, says economist Mohamed A. El-Erian.
- Job losses in leisure and hospitality and in private education were partly offset by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, and construction.
- Michael McDonough, chief economist of financial products at Bloomberg LP, points out that the U.S. is still down more jobs than were lost, peak-to-trough, during the 2008 financial crisis — 9.8M vs. 8.7M.
- The number of people on temporary layoff increased by 277K in December to 3.0M; that's down from 18.0M in April but is still 2.3M higher than in February.
- Permanent job losses declined by 348K to 3.4M in December, but is up by 2.1M since February.
- Labor force participation rate was 61.5%, unchanged M/M.
- Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 23 cents to $29.81.
- Average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 34.7 hours.
- The BLS employment situation showed an even steeper job loss in December than the ADP jobs report that gauged a 123K decline.
Friday, January 8, 2021
Jobs unexpectedly fall 140K in December; unemployment rate unchanged
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment