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U.S. non-farm payrolls rise modestly in December, jobless rate remains unchanged at 3.5 pct

U.S. non-farm payrolls rose modestly in December by 145k, slightly below consensus expectations of 160k. December’s data is a mild deceleration from November’s hearty 256k tally. Hiring was downwardly revised a bit over the October-November period. On the bright side, the jobless rate stayed unchanged at 3.5 percent.

Marked jobs were recorded in retail trade, health care, leisure and hospitality and construction. On the contrary, manufacturing lost 12k jobs, while mining saw a fall of 8k jobs. The oil and gas sector also lost jobs.

Wage growth disappointed in December. Average hourly earnings rose just 0.1 percent sequentially and 2.9 percent year-on-year, a deceleration from 3.1 percent in November.

Overall, 2019 was a fair year for job gains, with employment rising 1.6 percent for the year as a whole. This is a slightly slowdown from a 1.7 percent rate in 2018. The year also ended on a reasonably strong note with payroll employment rose 1.5 percent annualized in the fourth quarter. The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 63.2 percent, but it is still up over the last year.

“All in, a low unemployment environment, and wage gains which are outpacing inflation give a decent backdrop for consumer spending heading into 2020. As outlined in our recent forecast, we expect the consumer to once again be a key support to growth this year”, said TD Economics in a research report.

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