December Job Gains Below Forecast
01/10/2020
The October and November employment data had been distorted by the General Motors strike, but with the labor dispute in the rearview mirror, December was expected to provide a clearer picture. This morning, the December labor report turned out to be a bit weaker than expected, but the payroll miss wasn’t big and a positive labor market outlook remains intact. Nonfarm payrolls added +145k new jobs last month, slightly below the expected +160k forecast while -14k jobs were subtracted from the previous two month’s count.
