U.S. added 148,000 jobs in December, in lagging finish to year of strong growth

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post




By Danielle Paquette January 5 at 8:35 AM

The economy added 148,000 jobs in December after a year of steady hiring, the government employment report said Friday.

The jobless rate stayed at 4.1 percent last month, the lowest point since 2001, while the country hit its 87th straight month of expansion, with health care and professional services driving much of 2017's the gains.

Wages continued their slow climb, rising by 9 cents. That’s a 2.5 percent rise since December 2016 (and still below pre-recession levels).

Retail lost 20,000 jobs in December, according to the BLS estimate, capping a year of shrinkage in the sector. About 67,000 positions vanished from stores in 2017, compared a stretch of growth (203,000 jobs) in 2016.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/05/u-s-added-200000-jobs-in-december-capping-year-of-strong-growth-economists-predict

[Cryptoad]

1. But, But,, But,,,,,,,

that's the Deep State's numbers,,,,,, its really much better!

[BumRushDaShow]

2. That's about 40,000 less than expected.

[rdking647]

3. slowest job growth in 6 years

[George II]

4. So, trump's average in the 11 months he's been there is 170K. The previous 12 months...

...(under Obama) was 194K, and for the previous SIX years (leaving out Obama's first two when we were recovering from the bush recession) was 201K.

As the saying goes, "Thanks Obama!!!"

[Historic NY]

5. More & more retail establishment bigs...

are closing up shop Sears, KMart, Macys......the list goes one.

[politicaljunkie41910]

6. Amazon is driving all the brick and mortars out of business.

[progree]

8. They're driving themselves out of business too -- at least in the case of Sears

The last time I was at Sears (March 2017), the cashier kept prodding me to get the store credit card ... do you realize it is $30 off your order today, she asked incredulously (twice) when I kept refusing. She ought to be grateful anyone is in the damn store, rather than badgering the few customers they have left and trying to make those who refuse feel like some kind of idiot. Sheesh.

Though I'm not too happy with Amazon -- last night I placed my first order with them since about June. The printer cartridge ink (4 cartridges -- 3 colors and 1 black) that I have ordered several times in the past was available only to Prime members ($99/year). WTF!! Fortunately I found one by another seller on Amazon, although it was $15 more expensive (still about $25 cheaper than the brick-and-mortar Office Max store). Anyway, I have never seen nor heard of Amazon putting products off limits except for Prime members. So the dirty fuckers are now taking advantage of their almost monopoly position. So I'll be looking for another online retailer (and not Wal-mart)

[Bengus81]

12. Check out Inkjets.com for printer ink next time around........

Yeah....I've bought ink on Amazon,bought it locally at Office Depot and paid through the nose,bought from the cart recycle too. Somehow I found those guys and wow! Great prices (I have an Epson Workforce-3640) the carts work perfect--no crazy error messages and they last a hell of a lot longer.

I used to run by the local cartridge recycle and swap with them. The carts usually worked but gawd,they were out of ink in a flash.

[progree]

14. Thanks! n/t

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. The Amazon Effect:

Retweeted by Josh Mitchell: https://twitter.com/@JMitchellWSJ

The Amazon effect: Y/y change, Dec 2017, employment by sector: Retail trade: -30K; couriers & messengers: +19K; Warehousing & storage: +30K cc @carlquintanilla @MichaelMandel

Link to tweet

Retail jobs lost 20k in December.
Lost 67k for all of 2017.

Link to tweet

[Bengus81]

11. Sears deserved to go out of business.........

Thought they had the world by the ass for decades and found out different. Kmart..DUMP stores that would be improved IF a tornado hit them.

[Bengus81]

7. But..but the Stock Market?!?!?!?!!

Pffftttt....hell Trump,you walked into a strong economy and then brag it up like it was Jan 20th 2009 when you took office. FACTS ARE you inherited a DAMN low unemployment rate and a fairly strong economy on day one.

This stock market BS is running on nothing but hot air,a huge day or reckoning and then dozens of small days are coming your way. First hint that Wall St. gets that the debt is rising and no hiring over this BS Tax SHAM the markets will have a Oct 1929.

[progree]

9. Trump's stock market is great, but rest of the world is greater - Bloomberg

Trump's stock market is great, but rest of the world is greater, Bloomberg, 10/27/17

President Donald Trump likes to boast about how well the U.S. stock market’s done during his term. What he doesn’t mention is that the rest of the world has gotten richer, faster at the same time.

American equities are now worth $28.4 trillion, having swelled by almost $3 trillion since he took office in January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

But they’ve lost ground against the rest of the world.

All stocks across the globe are valued at $89.9 trillion. U.S. shares make up only 31.6 percent of that total. That’s the lowest proportion since November 2011, or a few months after the U.S. flirted with default. And it’s sunk from the 11-year high of 38.3 percent set in December under then-President Barack Obama.

There's a graph beginning in 2004 of U.S. market capitalization as a percent of global market capitalization



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-27/trump-s-stock-market-is-great-but-rest-of-the-world-is-greater

This is from late October. Unfortunately after a half hour of googling, I haven't been able to find either index, so I can't provide an update.

[progree]

13. Caligula sometimes talked about 94 million jobless Americans during the campaign.

(citing the Not In Labor Force number) and said the real unemployment rate is 40% --
Not in Labor Force, Age 16+ https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS15000000

Here is the 12 months of 2017 (in thousands):

2017: 94364 94248 94179 94407 95038 94743 94684 94759 94480 95395 95416 95512

Interestingly, its up by 1,148,000 since the inaugural month of January, so you don't hear very much about it from Trump or his Trumpanzees anymore. (1.148 million more "jobless Americans" to use Trump's campaign rhetoric)

I discuss this some more at
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=466755

Some other stats of interest:

Civilian labor force, 16 and over, thousands, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000

Civilian noninstitutional population, 16 and over, Thousands, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS10000000

Since January, the Labor Force has grown by only 879,000,
the Not in Labor Force number has grown by 1,148,000
while the civilian non-institutional population (the sum of the above two numbers) has grown by 2,027,000