U.S. job growth cools in December, but labor market tight

WASHINGTON - U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in December, but the pace of hiring likely remains sufficient to keep the longest economic expansion in history on track despite a deepening downturn in a manufacturing sector stung by trade disputes.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 145,000 jobs last month, with manufacturing shedding jobs after being boosted in November by the return to work of about 46,000 production workers at General Motors after a strike, the government’s survey of establishments showed. That was the smallest gain since May. Reports on housing, trade and consumer spending have suggested that the economic expansion, now in its 11th year, is not in immediate danger of being derailed by a recession. Worries that a downturn might be triggered by the Trump administration’s trade war with China spurred the Fed to cut interest rates three times in 2019.

There are, however, concerns the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics , which compiles the employment data, may not be fully capturing the impact on payrolls of President Donald Trump’s 18-month-long trade war with China, which has pushed manufacturing into recession and led to company closures.

Economists say downward revisions of that magnitude suggest that the model the government uses to calculate the net number of jobs from new business and closings is faulty. Some expect payrolls growth beyond last March could also be revised down. The tight labor market, however, has struggled to generate strong wage inflation. Average hourly earnings rose three cents, or 0.1% last month, after increasing 0.3% in November. That lowered the annual increase in wages to 2.9% in December from 3.1% in November.

Trump's job numbers still far behind Obama's job numbers. Stupid republicans only know how to destroy the American economy while lying about it.

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