Good Economic News…
Businesses added many more workers to their payrolls last month than economists expected, and their pay rose at a healthy clip — further evidence of strength in the job market despite a slowdown in the economy.
The Labor Department reported this morning that nonfarm employment grew by a net 167,000 jobs in December, seasonally adjsuted — more than enough to absorb natural growth in the work force. The figures for October and November were revised upward as well. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of only 100,000 jobs in December.
The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.5 percent.
Average wages have been outpacing inflation by enough of a margin in recent months that workers are seeing some of the biggest real gains in their paychecks in four years. Much of the credit goes to the fall in energy prices since the summer, which has brought overall inflation down and allowed the average worker’s pay to go farther.
Tightness in the job market has been driving wages upward, economists say. With unemployment so low — the 4.4 percent reading in October was the lowest in five years — employers have found themselves having to bid up pay a bit to fill vacancies.
Compared with the same month a year earlier, average hourly wages were up 4.2 percent in December, the government reported today. The figure for November was revised up slightly to the same rate in today’s report; they are the highest readings since February 2001. The average number of hours worked was unchanged in December.
The rich may get richer faster, but a rising tide still lifts all boats…
Of course, now we’ll be hearing from the few hawks at the Fed worried about inflation…