U.S. Economy Added 151,000 Jobs in January; Unemployment at 4.9%

[Crabtownboy]

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/b...ployment-january-fed-interest-rates.html?_r=0

American employers eased up on the gas last month, but still added jobs at a healthy enough pace to help calm fears that the economy is on the verge of falling into a recession.

The Labor Department said Friday that payrolls rose by 151,000 in January, a falloff from the year-end sprint that helped make 2015 the second-best year for job creation since the late 1990s.

Given those outsize gains, as well as much colder weather last month after the warmest December on record, some payback in January was to be expected.

But investors have lately been edgy, concerned about weakness in China, plunging oil prices and a series of reports suggesting the American economy may have hit an air pocket in recent weeks.

The latest figures on the job market — plus a slight fall in the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent, from 5 percent in December — suggest some modest strength persists. January was the first time since February 2008 that the unemployment rate fell below 5 percent, just before the collapse of Bear Stearns set the stage for the financial crisis.

 

[church mouse guy]

Komrade, NYT is pravda to my ears! Does this mean that Sanders will lead us to workers' mecca?

 

[Zaac]

Good job from the current administration(no comment needed from the naysayers) for getting that rate down.Thumbsup

 

[Don]

And yet, it does need comment.

For example, just yesterday, from http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/04/news/economy/january-job-cuts-soar/:
Job cuts soared 218% in January, according to career placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Layoffs were particularly heavy for people working at energy and retail companies.
In total, American employers announced 75,114 cuts last month, according to Challenger. It was a big jump from December when under 24,000 layoffs were announced.
There are already several red flags. Growth slowed dramatically at the end of last year. The manufacturing sector is in a recession, and even the normally powerhouse service sector lost momentum in January. That's according to the latest non-manufacturing ISM report that came out Wednesday.
More Americans than expected -- 285,000 people -- filed for unemployment benefits last week. Experts had predicted 275,000 would submit the paperwork.
January is often a weak month for jobs. Many workers who were hired to help out for the busy holiday season are laid off as stores empty out. But the job cuts this January were over 40% worse than the same period in 2015, according to Challenger.
On Friday, the official government data comes out on how many jobs were added in January. Anything above 200,000 jobs would be a sign of the U.S. economy's resilience despite the slowdown in China, Europe and other parts of the world.

A sign of resilience, yes. But resilience isn't growth.

By the way: I used CNN as the source so nobody could claim right-wing or anti-Obama bias.

 

[InTheLight]

151,000 jobs a month is quite a fall off from an average of 231,000 a month for the past three months. This is still the slowest, most drawn out recovery in history. With the relatively large number of people dropping out of the workforce there ought to be more hiring going on.