The last several months have proved the value of not overreacting to any one employment report. Especially when we’re already at the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Weaker reports might mean that hiring is really slacking off, or it might mean that the labor market is so tight it’s hard for employers to hire when they’re looking to do so. Friday’s employment report, the first of the 4th quarter, of 2019 presented a picture of a strong economy that’s continuing to deliverer unprecedented opportunity.
The unemployment rate came in at 3.6% that's up .1%. We added 128,000 jobs and had positive revisions from past months totaling +95,000 jobs.
The top industries for hiring were food services, professional and business services and coming in at number three social assistance. It's important to note that the impact of the GM strike was a negative 42,000 jobs that will positively reverse in next month’s report. Moreover, factoring in the extensive positive revisions, the real number was a remarkable +223k jobs.
Now, the real unemployment rate once underemployed, long-term unemployed and marginally attached people are accounted for is actually 7% down from 7.5% in 2018.
We can conclude that the real-unemployment rate continues to pace near-record-low levels and the lowest since December of 2000. Plus, those unaccounted for in the base unemployment rate include 6.9 million Americans. The labor participation rate continues to improve with more people joining the workforce with an unprecedented opportunity.
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