November's jobs report showed strength across the board. The Labor Department indicated progress across every demographic—gender as well as race and all age cohorts
Employment in America looks strong, almost too strong. Unemployment in November came in at 3.5% of the workforce, a 50-year low. The Labor Department indicated progress across every demographic – gender as well as race and all age cohorts. Payrolls expanded by 266,000 in November, a huge figure by any standard. Of course these statistics bounce aground from month to month, but the trends over several months look strong and that is especially significant.
One other statistic offered encouragement that the good news is real. Retail payrolls expanded by 2,000 workers. Jobs growth statistics at this time of year are always suspect, because of holiday hiring. The seasonal adjustments applied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are supposed to remove this temporary effect, but they can mislead. If they had in this case, the upward distortion would have shown particularly in retail hiring.
Wages, too, continued the moderate rate of improvement they have shown all year. In November hourly wages in the private economy averaged $28.29, up from $27.43 a year ago, while weekly wages in November averaged $973.18, up from $943.59 a year ago. Both figures show a 3.1% gain for the last 12 months. Since consumer prices during this time rose some 1.8%, the implication is that real wages rose on average some 1.3%.
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