Employment numbers are weak
Employment numbers for December have been released, and the news is not as bright as anticipated. Goverment
prediction was a growth of 200,000 jobs for December.
Payroll processing firm ADP also predicted increase of 238,000 jobs. The actual number for December was a growth of 74,000. This is a setback for economic growth prediction going forward into the new year.
The interesting thing is that the job growth of 74,000 is statistically insignificant to the overall unemployment rate, yet unemployment rate went down to 6.7%. The rate going down is possible because of American workforce decreasing to 62.8% of population, this is the lowest rate since 1978. Some of the reasons for this are: some people went back to school, some retired, and a lot of people simply have stopped trying.
