Employment continued to trend up in government, health care, social assistance, and
construction, while transportation and warehousing lost jobs.
The US Economy beat expectations in December which was originally projected to only add 160,000 new jobs and have a minor increase to the unemployment rate (3.8% from 3.7%).
Good things! The unemployment rate is at a historic low, we added more jobs than expected, and inflation looks to be coming down.
What kinds of jobs? White collar and artistic work is pretty anemic where I am.
Seems like its all retail and fast food.
The bulk of the new jobs were in government, health care, social assistance, and construction. Each of these industries have a range of salary positions.
Of these, government positions typically pay less than their private industry equivalents, and social assistance is probably underpaid as well.
However, the healthcare and construction industries both routinely open positions that pay higher than the average household income in the US.
I did not see retail listed as a primary mover for December.
It’ll be curious to see how quickly voters opinions of the economy change.
