January 10, 2020

December 2019 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 3.5 percent

Jobs Created: 145,000

Employment and Unemployment

  1. The Department of Labor reported the unemployment rate held steady at 3.5% in December.

  2. Nonfarm jobs grew by 145,000 in December. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had expected 160,000 jobs.

  3. Job growth for October and November was lower than originally reported. The department revised the job creation numbers down for those months by a combined 14,000 jobs.  

  4. The U-6 unemployment rate, a measure that also includes part-time and discouraged workers, dropped 0.2 percentage point to 6.7%.

Labor Force Participation

  1. The labor force participation rate, the share of people employed or looking for work, remained constant at 63.2%.

Wages

  1. In December, average hourly earnings for all employees in private nonfarm jobs increased by 3 cents to $28.32. They are up 2.9% from a year ago.

Issue Tag: Labor