The weekly jobless claims number has remained above 700,000 for 42 weeks in a row and it is still higher than the maximum level (655,000) that was reached in the 2008-2009 recession. Not much good on the jobs creation front will occur until the number of first-time unemployed begins to drop significantly.
And, of course, the new layoffs are coming as a result of surging coronavirus cases. Bars and restaurants that had been re-opening have been forced to cease or scale back operations once again.
Also, there’s been a revision to the previous month’s jobs count that somewhat alters the narrative. The latest estimate of November’s total employment has risen by +135,000 versus what was originally reported.
Therefore, the ‘truer’ net change in America’s total jobs count in the latest month was close to zero (-5,000).
The seasonally adjusted (SA) unemployment rate in December stayed at 6.7%, the same as in November, while the not seasonally adjusted U rate increased slightly, to 6.5% from 6.4%.
The jobs recovery or claw-back ratio, relative to February-April’s plummet in employment, stayed flat in the latest month, at 52.1%.
A number of industrial sectors managed quite respectable increases in employment in December, including construction, +51,000 jobs.
Other than construction, the biggest nominal gains were registered by ‘professional and business services’, +161,000 jobs; ‘retail’, +120,000 jobs; ‘transportation and warehousing’, +47,000; and ‘manufacturing’, +38,000.
Unfortunately, those jobs improvements were not able to withstand the onslaught of losses in ‘government’, -45,000 jobs; ‘education and health’, -31,000; and most consequential, ‘leisure and hospitality’, -498,000.
The -45,000 figure for government jobs resulted from shrinkages of -32,000 and -19,000 at the ‘local’ and ‘state’ levels, while there were 6,000 net hires by Washington.
‘Education and health’s' jobs drop of -31,000 was comprised of -63,000 for ‘educational services’ and -7,000 for ‘social assistance’, while ‘health care’ payrolls expanded by +39,000.
‘Hospitals’ added +32,000 staff members.
‘Food Services and drinking places’ (-372,000 jobs) accounted for three-quarters of the ‘leisure and hospitality’ sector’s jobs carnage.
