Employment fell again in December 2009, and more than expected. Non-farm payroll employment dropped 85,000, and the unemployment rate remained at 10.0 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade were hardest hit, but there was good news in temporary help services and health care.
About 2.5 million people were marginally attached to the labor force in December, an increase of 578,000 from a year earlier. “Marginally attached” means they were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. This is why, on the street, the employment situation feels much worse than the already bad numbers suggest.
Construction employment declined by 53,000 in December, with job losses throughout the industry. Employment in construction has fallen by 1.6 million since the recession began.
In December, employment in manufacturing decreased by 27,000. The average monthly decline for the last 6 months of 2009 (-41,000) was much lower than the average monthly decline for the first half of the year (-171,000). Since the recession began, manufacturing employment has fallen by 2.1 million; three-fourths of this drop occurred in the durable goods component (-1.6 million).
Wholesale trade employment declined by 18,000 in December, with the majority of the decline occurring among durable goods wholesalers. Employment in retail trade was little changed over the month, although general merchandise stores lost 15,000 jobs.
Temporary help services added 47,000 jobs in December. Since reaching a low point in July, temporary help services employment has risen by 166,000. This is a good sign as it usually is a precursor to general job growth.
Health care employment continued to increase in December (22,000), with notable gains in offices of physicians (9,000) and home health care services (8,000). The health care industry has added 631,000 jobs since the recession began.
Other positive news from the report included average hours worked and average hourly earnings. In December, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls was unchanged at 33.2 hours. The manufacturing work-week, at 40.4 hours, and factory overtime, at 3.4 hours, were unchanged over the month. Notably though, since May, the manufacturing workweek has increased by 1.0 hour.
In December, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls rose by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $18.80. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent, while average weekly earnings have risen by 1.9 percent.
Prior month revisions included changing November 2009 to a net gain. The change in total non-farm payroll employment for October was revised from -111,000 to -127,000, and the change for November was revised from -11,000 to +4,000.
To view the full BLS report, please click on the following link: The Employment Situation – December 2009.
Gregg D. Killoren
victoria1014
