Below, EPI economists offer their initial insights on the jobs report released this morning, which showed 223,000 jobs added in December and wage growth slowing.
From EPI senior economist, Elise Gould (@eliselgould):
Read the full Twitter thread here.
Notable gains in the payroll survey for December were in education+health and leisure+hospitality, rising 67k over the month. Every month we are chipping away at the leisure+hospitality job shortfall. Small gains and a large deficit in government jobs continue to be troubling. pic.twitter.com/h12ty7Duzk
— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 6, 2023
Important for policy makers: wage growth decelerated in December no matter how it’s measured. Annualized wage growth between November and December was 3.4%. It is decidedly not driving inflation. pic.twitter.com/40X2c5s9fy
— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 6, 2023
After some recent signs of weakness, the household survey is showing promise with rising participation and employment in December. The prime-age employment-to-population ratio started to move in the right direction again, back up to 80.1%, nudging closer to pre-pandemic levels. pic.twitter.com/9klBRIUvgJ
— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 6, 2023
From EPI president, Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz):
Read the full Twitter thread here.
The most policy-relevant thing in today’s jobs numbers? December’s annualized monthly wage growth was 3.4%, a completely non-inflationary number. BY THIS MEASURE THE FED’S WORK IS DONE. 1/
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) January 6, 2023
State and local governments added just 2,000 in December and have added back just 70% of what they lost in the recession. They are still down 452,000 jobs since Feb ’20, with over half of that, 239,000, in education. THIS IS A CRISIS, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE. 4/
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) January 6, 2023
It boggles the mind that we have to fight for this, but here we are. It is absolutely crucial that state and local governments use their ARPA funds to raise pay and refill those jobs. 6/
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) January 6, 2023
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