US economy still strong despite world woes

American employers added 292,000 jobs in December, the biggest gain all year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The economy added an average of 221,000 jobs per month in 2015, and it came on strong at the end.

“It gives us a short-term shot in the arm and pushes back the idea that we are headed for a global recession or that weakness in China will sink our economy”, says David Donabedian, chief investment officer at Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in Baltimore. They added 73,000 jobs, though nearly half were temporary. “We also saw an upswing in temperature help here in Milwaukee, too, so things are looking up”.

Wage gains were stronger in 2015 than any of the previous five years, but they remain historically modest.

Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., noted that China is transitioning from an industrialized economy to one that’s more consumer-driven.

Yet there are also signs in the report that the economy still has some room to grow.

The dollar is moving higher and the prices for the USA government debt fell, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Money Beat. The only wrinkle was a one cent drop in average hourly earnings, but that was most likely because of calendar effects which should reverse in the January report. That’s only the second time since the Great Recession ended in mid-2009 that the growth has reached that level.

A total of 129,000 mining jobs were lost in 2015, with more than 40,000 positions evaporating in December alone.

“The U.S. economy is heading into 2016 with domestic and worldwide forces pulling in different directions”, according to the written assessment of HSBC Securities. “If President Obama wants to make a real difference during his a year ago in office, he’ll use his final State of the Union Address to propose new ways to break down barriers to job creation and encourage economic growth”.

However, average hourly earnings for the month remained flat month-on-month despite a forecast consensus of 0.2% growth. The central bank cited “considerable improvement” in the labor market during 2015 when it acted last month to raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in almost a decade. Nevertheless, 2.5 percent has increased previously year. This new year the Fed should resolve to keep rates low until the economy genuinely works for working people.

The U.S. legal sector gained 1,200 jobs in December, as the overall national employment situation brightened. In 2015, the professional and business services segment, which includes accounting and bookkeeping services, added 605,000 jobs, compared with a gain of 704,000 in 2014.

Statisticians revised upward the October and November numbers by a combined 50,000.

Economic observers will be watching today to see whether the numbers herald another possible Federal Reserve interest rate increase. That means October and December were the two strongest months of the year.

“Last year, inflation was close to zero because of falling oil prices”, he said, so “at least there’s some real wage growth”.

Manufacturing added 8,000 jobs last month.