The November jobs report is out and shows the U.S. labor market continues to roll along.
In November, the economy added 155,000 jobs and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%.
While this is lower than analysts had forecast, the good news is that wages were in-line with expectations, with average hourly earnings rising 0.3% over last month and 3.1% over the prior year. Wage growth has been closely tracked for signs of inflation pressures in the economy.
Despite recent sell-offs in the stock market, there is still decent economic momentum which suggests that there is little reason to expect a significant drop-off in demand for workers anytime soon but the key question is whether companies can actually find qualified talent. Given the scarcity of available labor, this suggests further upside for wages.
Today’s jobs report comes with the background not only of volatile markets but a Federal Reserve that has appeared to slightly change its tune on its outlook for interest rate hikes next year. It is likely that there will be quarter point hike at the December meeting. Beyond that and into 2019 seems to be ambiguous at this time.
Here the breakdown by labor segments that showed increases;
Manufacturing Sector- continued to show strength with payrolls rising by 27,000 in that industry after a 26,000 job increase in October. Manufacturing had added 288,000 over the previous 12 months.
Health care added 32,000 and over the year this segment is up by 328,000.
Transportation and Warehousing rose by 25,000 primarily in messengers, warehousing and storage which aligns with changes in logistics in the on-line economy.
Professional and Business Services is up 32,000 with an annualized increase of 561,000.
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