U.S. adds a surprisingly robust 292000 jobs in December despite slowing global

Signs emerged this week that China’s economy may be slowing more than expected. Its stock market sold off this week, and its currency fell as concerns mounted about a slowdown in its economy.

As part of the data released today, the government also revised jobs estimates for October and November upward by a combined 50,000 positions.

Year over year wage increases have held at about 2% in recent months, a solid number but still well below the 3%-4% range economists believe would make a significant impact on inflation.

Employers capped previous year with impressive job growth in December, the latest sign of a stable USA economy despite worldwide headwinds that have worsened since 2016 began.

“While it is a strong (jobs) report overall, it is not so positive as to overshadow the troubling developments in China recently, and the Fed will likely need more ammunition before it goes authorizes another rate hike”, says Curt Long, chief economist for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, in a statement. “The labor force participation rate increased for the third month in a row”.

The dollar rose after a report showed U.S.jobs growth exceeded forecasts, backing the case for the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates this year.

For months, USA employers have hired steadily even as global growth has flagged and financial markets have sunk. Economists said December’s decline in earnings could simply be due to a quirk of the calendar.

The transportation sector with the highest employment increase over the busy holiday shipping season was couriers and messengers, which had 625,300 jobs in December, compared to 610,200 in November.

The labor force participation rate, which tracks the share of adults employed or looking for work, inched up to 62.6 percent. But we don’t actually know what the lowest sustainable unemployment rate is, and with interest rates still very low, the Fed has more room to raise rates to rein in unexpected inflation than it has to lower them in the face of unexpected job market weakness.

DEAN BAKER: Many of the people who dropped out of the labor force may now finally be coming back.

Employment gains in December were concentrated in the services sector, with mining shedding 8,000 jobs. China’s stock markets plunged, as did most others around the world, including in the U.S. Oil prices fell to almost a 12-year low Thursday, as markets anticipated that China will use less oil.

This month the economy added 292,000 total non-farm (TNF) jobs, slightly above the 221,000 monthly average for 2015. The company said it expected the slowdown in drilling activity to continue this year. Manufacturers in 2015 added 30,000 jobs, one-seventh of the growth from a year prior.

Retail payrolls are a wild card as mild temperatures hurt sales of winter apparel. Or the rate of job growth will have to slow down to something closer to the rate at which the working-age population is growing (something below 100,000 jobs a month, versus the 220,000 jobs a month added in 2015).