January Jobs Report – The Numbers

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WAGES

2.9%

The average hourly paycheck for private-sector workers grew 2.9% in January from a year earlier. That marked the best annual gain for a month since June 2009, the month the recession ended. The strong increase suggests employers are paying more to attract workers at a time when unemployment is historically low. Still, the latest gain is slightly below prerecession rates. The year before the recession began in late 2007, wages rose at better than 3%. One caveat: The average workweek decreased last month, so weekly paychecks are growing at a slower rate than hourly wages. For the month, hourly wages grew 9 cents, or 0.34%, in January from a month earlier.

MONTHLY JOB GROWTH

200,000

U.S. employers added 200,000 jobs in January, starting 2018 on a better pace than the prior year. Employers added an average of 181,000 a month in 2017. Construction, manufacturing and restaurants had strong job growth. Government payrolls grew by 4,000 last month. Overall, the pace of hiring has gradually slowed each year since 2014, consistent with a tighter labor market in the later stages of an economic expansion.

ANNUAL REVISION

2.173 million

Friday’s report showed the economy created 118,000 more jobs in 2017 than initially estimated. The Labor Department report included annual revisions and other routine adjustments to data in the January release. After those revisions, it showed employment growth for all of last year of 2.173 million compared with an estimate of 2.055 million reported last month. The report also showed 145.969 million total jobs on payrolls as of March 2017, the month in which the data is benchmarked to tax records. That’s a relatively tiny upward adjustment of 146,000.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

4.1%

The jobless rate remained at 4.1% for the fourth consecutive month, matching the lowest level since late 2000. The unemployment rate hasn’t fallen below 4% since December 2000, when it was 3.9%. January’s rate was below what the Federal Reserve projects will be the economy’s long-run average, suggesting a tight labor market. In January 2017, the unemployment rate was 4.8%.

BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT

7.7%

The unemployment rate for black Americans rose by 0.9 percentage point in January to 7.7%. It was the highest rate since April. The rate in December, which was touted by the White House, was the lowest on records back to the 1970s. Unemployment rates for racial groups can be volatile from month to month due to small sample sizes. The unemployment rate for Hispanic or Latino Americans was 5%, just above a record low. More broadly, the data suggest the economic recovery is paying dividends for two groups that disproportionately suffered in the wake of the Great Recession. Still, the unemployment rates for those groups remained well above the rate for whites, 3.5% last month.

from Real Time Economics http://ift.tt/2DUDZeQ