'WTF': Economists React To December Jobs Report On Twitter
Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 145,000 jobs in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, marking the country's 111th straight month of employment gains.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.5%.
Notable December job gains were seen in retail trade and healthcare. Retail trade added 41,000 jobs in December, but employment in the sector has changed little over the past two years.
Healthcare employment grew by 28,000 jobs in December and added 399,000 jobs in 2019 after growing by 350,000 jobs in 2018.
Employment in construction rose by 151,000 jobs in 2019 after adding 307,000 jobs in 2018.
Here's how economists and others reacted to the jobs report on Twitter.
#jobs rose in line with forecasts, +145k
— Constance L Hunter (@ConstanceHunter) January 10, 2020
As expected #retail jobs rose in Dec due to short holiday period.
Healthcare is the strongest job engine of the past decade and will remain an engine of job growth into the next one. pic.twitter.com/Bg65tgWg81
Not a very exciting jobs report, but a reassuring one. Job growth continues, at a slower rate than in 2018, but enough to keep the unemployment rate at a historic low and wages growing above inflation.
— Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) January 10, 2020
Where did Trump's trade war hit hard?
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) January 10, 2020
Check out transportation and warehousing jobs.
The US economy added 57,000 transportation & warehousing jobs in 2019
That's just a quarter of the 216,000 transportation & warehousing jobs added in 2018 #jobs #trade
WTF is wrong with this economy?
— Michael Madowitz (@mikemadowitz) January 10, 2020
How do you keep getting slowing wage growth at 3.5% unemployment? https://t.co/yngm2AvHL2
Your regular #JobsDay reminder of where we are on wage growth: From late 2017 through the beginning of 2019, it looked like wage growth was picking up. THAT ENDED. Wage growth lost ground in 2019. pic.twitter.com/3TNhLGaN5m
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) January 10, 2020
Workers are getting squeezed with decelerating wage growth & accelerating consumer prices.
— Aaron Sojourner (@aaronsojourner) January 10, 2020
Wages rose 2.9% (blue, decelerating). Prices rose 2.1% (red, accelerating).
So average hour of work buys just 0.8% (blue-red) more now than a year ago. Boo for slower real wage growth. pic.twitter.com/865RNhz9N5
Today’s report gives a look back on all of 2019. Average monthly job creation has held remarkably steady for the past nine years, but it did soften in the last year, from 223,000 in 2018 to 176,000 in 2019, as the one-time boost of the fiscal stimulus from 2018 has wore off.
— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 10, 2020
3/n pic.twitter.com/0hjXimP85T
The slowdown in employment growth for goods-producing sectors. Particularly bad month for mining and logging.
— Nick Bunker (@nick_bunker) January 10, 2020
The good news is that the vast majority of jobs are in the service sector & growth there is hanging on. pic.twitter.com/LoScQ0FcLL
#jobsday women cross 50 percent of payroll employment
— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) January 10, 2020
But perhaps the most important issue is that women are working where jobs are growing. Health care added more jobs in 2019 than 2018, while jobs grow slowed substantially in mining, construction, transportation & warehousing, and construction. [6/6]
— Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) January 10, 2020
This economy is just The Little Engine That Could.
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) January 10, 2020
It's pulled us up a steep slope, from the depths of the Great Recession, and just kept hammering away, even when others said it couldn't keep going.
The lesson for all econs: "I think I can, I think I can..." pic.twitter.com/Ka2SV0eaZs
