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| US jobs report: 178,000 new jobs added, making Fed rate hike likely | US jobs report: 178,000 new jobs added, making Fed rate hike likely |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The final US jobs report of 2016 saw 178,000 new jobs added, very close to economists’ expectations of 180,000 for November. | The final US jobs report of 2016 saw 178,000 new jobs added, very close to economists’ expectations of 180,000 for November. |
| A rate hike from the Federal Reserve later this month depended on numbers sticking close to those predictions; now, it is all but certain. | A rate hike from the Federal Reserve later this month depended on numbers sticking close to those predictions; now, it is all but certain. |
| Hourly wages declined by 3 cents an hour to $25.89, and overall unemployment declined by 387,000 to 7.4 million, though retail jobs fell slightly from October to November – atypical for the Christmas shopping season. PNC analyst Augustine Faucher called the wage dip “a big soft spot”. | |
| “The tighter job market is pushing up wages as businesses compete for workers, but the process is gradual,” he said. Unemployment was at its lowest since August of 2007, but Faucher said that wasn’t entirely good news. “It fell in part because of a contraction in the labor force of 226,000, with the labor force participation rate declining to 62.7%, its lowest since June,” Faucher noted. | |
| Still, he said, things were looking up – the analyst predicted improvement through 2017 and said little would stand in the way of the rate hike now. “The economy is close to full employment, and the [Federal Open Market Committee] FOMC wants to start gradually raising interest rates before the economy reaches full employment and wage pressures accelerate too much and spark much higher inflation.” PNC expects two interest rate increases in 2017 followed by three in 2018. | |
| Though emphasis from the political sphere has been on manufacturing since Donald Trump claimed credit for keeping 850 unionized manufacturing jobs in Indiana on Thursday, service sector jobs, where most Americans work, registered important changes during the month. “Job gains were concentrated in private service industries,” Faucher noted. | |
| The biggest gains in a single industry came from ambulatory healthcare – which includes outpatient clinics and other services. In October, the labor secretary, Tom Perez, told the Guardian he believed the jobs created by the Affordable Care Act had been instrumental in the increase. | |
| November saw about 19,000 new jobs in food service, while home care added 2,200 and retail lost 8,300. Manufacturing jobs were down by about 4,000. | November saw about 19,000 new jobs in food service, while home care added 2,200 and retail lost 8,300. Manufacturing jobs were down by about 4,000. |
| Adult men fared best in November, when unemployment decreased for them to 4.3%. White unemployment stood at 4.2% for the month; for black workers the figure was 8.1% and for Hispanics 5.7%. | Adult men fared best in November, when unemployment decreased for them to 4.3%. White unemployment stood at 4.2% for the month; for black workers the figure was 8.1% and for Hispanics 5.7%. |
| Retail is particularly important during the sector’s “hard eight” weeks of Christmas and other year-end shopping. Post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales dropped to $290m this year; brick-and-mortar retailers remain in stiff competition with online outlets pushing sales in tandem with the notorious “door-buster” deals at national retail chains. This year, Macy’s, Walmart and Target started their sales the evening of Thanksgiving in an effort to draw shoppers and compete with online giants like Amazon. Retail jobs had fallen in October; this month they fell further to about 16m. | Retail is particularly important during the sector’s “hard eight” weeks of Christmas and other year-end shopping. Post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales dropped to $290m this year; brick-and-mortar retailers remain in stiff competition with online outlets pushing sales in tandem with the notorious “door-buster” deals at national retail chains. This year, Macy’s, Walmart and Target started their sales the evening of Thanksgiving in an effort to draw shoppers and compete with online giants like Amazon. Retail jobs had fallen in October; this month they fell further to about 16m. |
| Many workers still can’t make ends meet even with multiple jobs. “I take one day off from home health, but when I do that I do deliveries all day long,” said April Shabazz of Merriam, Kansas, who protested with Fight for 15 workers on Tuesday. “I’ve been in home health since I was 15, so 30 years.” Shabazz said she works every day of the week, sometimes as a delivery driver for GrubHub, sometimes as a home healthcare worker. | |
| Economic growth is uneven, as Shabazz and others like her often find themselves at odds with news of expanded prospects. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily ever been better,” she told the Guardian. “The cost of living is going up, but our pay is not going up.” | Economic growth is uneven, as Shabazz and others like her often find themselves at odds with news of expanded prospects. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily ever been better,” she told the Guardian. “The cost of living is going up, but our pay is not going up.” |