According to the latest U.S. Labor Market Report, released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. employment situation weakened in December. The Bureau's survey of employers reported that total nonfarm job counts increased by just 18,000 workers last month. Revisions for October and November raised total employment in those months by a combined +10,000 jobs. Net-net, job growth in the U.S. has increased by +292,000 workers over the past three months (or about +97,000 per month).
Government payrolls grew by +31,000 employees last month, mostly due to higher job counts in local governments and public school districts. In the private sector, only three of the ten major industry groups reported higher job counts in December. The "plus" industries were education & health services (+44,000 jobs), professional & business services (+43,000 jobs), and leisure & hospitality (up by +22,000 jobs). The biggest payroll declines were reported by construction (down by -49,000 jobs over the month), manufacturing (-31,000 jobs), and retail trade (-24,000 jobs, reversing a gain of +32,000 jobs in November). Employment in the information sector fell by -13,000 jobs, due to strike-related cutbacks in motion pictures and broadcasting.
Compared with 12 months ago, nonfarm employers have added 1,328,000 workers to their payrolls, an increase of about 1.0%. Five private-sector industry groups reported higher payrolls over the year. The "big three" job gainers continued to be education & health services (+564,000 jobs), leisure & hospitality (+361,000 jobs), and professional & business services (+314,000 jobs, despite temporary help firms being down by -46,000 workers over the year). The manufacturing and construction sectors continued in the red, falling by -212,000 jobs and -195,000 jobs respectively compared to December 2006. Note that residential construction employment dropped by -195,000 jobs over the year; so payrolls in nonresidential and heavy construction were little changed over that period.
According to the BLS survey of households, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.0% in December from a revised 4.7% during four of the previous five months. The nation's jobless rate was 4.4% in December 2006; most of the +0.6 percentage point rise since then occurred in the second half of 2007. Among the major demographic groups, the unemployment rate for whites was up by +0.4 percentage points over the past 12 months, while joblessness among adult men and adult women both increased by +0.5 percentage points. Unemployment among Blacks and Hispanics rose by +0.7 percentage points and +1.4 percentage points respectively over the year. Meanwhile, the jobless rate for teenagers increased by +2.3 percentage points to 17.1%.
The nation's unemployment rate crossed the 5.0% threshold in December for the first time since November 2005. Job counts are still growing in many sectors of private industry despite the weakness evident in December. However, employment is falling sharply in activities related to housing construction, automotive, apparel/textile manufacturing, and mortgage finance. Job counts in these distressed sectors have dropped by -6.4% over the year. The BIG issue for the economy is whether their distress will spill over into other sectors of the economy. (Nancy D. Sidhu)
PR: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdfAverage prices at U.S. and local gasoline stations turned up in the week ending December 31st after declining during the four previous weeks, according to the Energy Information Association. The reported prices include all taxes and are the self-serve pump prices paid by consumers. The average U.S. regular gasoline retail price was $3.11 per gallon, up by 4.7 cents (+1.5%) from the previous week and up by 69.2 cents (+28.7%) from the same period in 2006.
Local prices were higher as well. The average California regular gasoline retail price for the week ending December 31st was $3.30 per gallon, up by 3.7 cents (+1.1%) from the previous week and up by 68.8 cents (+26.4%) from a year ago. Local Angelenos are feeling the pain as well. The average Los Angeles regular gasoline retail price increased to $3.27 per gallon, up by 6.7 cents (+2.1%) from the prior week and up by 68.4 cents (+26.4%) from the same period in 2006. (Candice F. Hynek)
U.S.: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_w.htm
CA: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_sca_w.htm
L.A.: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_y05la_w.htm
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