President Joe Biden will end his term with a relatively healthy labor market as the United States added a surprising 256,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.
Both figures, reported Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compare favorably to historical averages and beat Wall Street forecasts. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones had expected just 155,000 jobs to be added in December, with the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 4.2%.
On their own, the latest figures indicate the U.S. economy has largely achieved the “soft landing” scenario Biden sought: relatively low unemployment and relatively low inflation.
Currently, layoffs remain subdued, though the pace of hiring has slowed markedly over the past year. And what new jobs are being created are largely concentrated in health care, government and retail trade, while other sectors are at a standstill. That trend continued in December, with the BLS noting insignificant job gains in manufacturing, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and construction.
Despite fanfare about reshoring blue-collar roles, manufacturers have shed jobs in four out of the last five months, and finished the year down a net 87,000 payrolls.
At 12.9 million employees, the U.S. manufacturing sector is essentially the same size it was at the outset of the Covid pandemic.
Markets responded to Friday’s report by sending borrowing costs higher, with Wall Street traders now projecting just one…
