For all of 2016, job growth averaged 180,000 a month, down from 229,000 in 2015, but enough to lower unemployment over time. Among them: declining opportunities for low-skilled workers, and a less supportive labor market in terms of policies that provide job-search assistance and training.
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“Encouragingly, wage growth came in stronger than expected, registering its highest increase since 2009″, El-Erian said.
Wages are showing their fastest gains since the last recession ended. Also, because the labor report survey counts a part time job as no different than a full time job, in many cases it took two Obama-era jobs to equal one full time job with benefits.
There were 5,598,000 Americans working part-time in December who would rather have a full-time job but cited economic reasons for not having such employment. Some of that drop is structural with an aging population, but much of it reflects the dissipation of workers without opportunities to find employment after the Great Recession. The US unemployment rate rose to 4.7% from 4.6% in November.
“Job growth previous year slowed from its pace in 2015, when growth averaged almost 230,000 [per month]”, NPR’s Yuki Noguchi tells our Newscast unit.
Mr Trump, who takes office on 20 January, has pledged to create 25 million jobs over 10 years. In the recently released minutes of the latest Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, members said that potential fiscal stimulus from the new administration would inform how the committee chooses to adjust interest rates in the future. Still, many Americans feel that the economy is not in good health and their lives are not better.
The labor force participation rate – the the percent of adults that are over 16 and actively working or looking for work – remained unchanged at 62.7%.
People wait in line to enter the Nassau County Mega Job Fair at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York October 7, 2014.
Trump spotlighted that trend as a shortcoming in Obama’s record and charged during the election campaign that the unemployment rate was a “hoax”. One economist found that 47% of the jobs created under Obama are in the “high-wage” category. Jobs have been added for 75 straight months, the longest such streak on record.
Wages have been stagnant for much of the post-recession recovery, but they gained some momentum a year ago as the jobless rate dropped and employers began to fall under pressure to offer higher wages. The total number of jobs in the sector fell by 3,000, although “residential specialty contractors” added 12,000 positions to their payrolls. More employers, especially in the construction sector, are reporting difficulties finding qualified workers.
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“The economy hit some headwinds and it continued to move forward”, in 2016, says Robert Murphy, an economics professor at Boston College and former White House economist during the Clinton administration.
