Professional Staffing Jobs Report: January 2015

America’s employment state remains steady in December

Although December’s numbers dropped from the previous month America’s employment state remains steady with 252,000 new jobs added to the economy. This is above the per month job growth average for 2014 and 177,000 more jobs than the year prior.

The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.6 percent, decreasing the number of unemployed persons by 383,000 to a total of 8.7 million unemployed. The overall unemployment rate has steadily remained under 6.0 percent since September and has decreased 1.1 percentage points throughout 2014.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) remains the same at 2.8 million individuals accounting for 31.9 percent of the unemployed in America. Over the past 12 months the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 1.1 million.

 The Healthcare Sector has its largest job increase of the year

December’s report shows that the healthcare sector has its largest job increase of 2014 adding 34,000 jobs. In 2014 healthcare averaged 26,000 in monthly job growth and only 17,000 per month in 2013. Professional and business services also remained on top with the highest job gains for the month adding an additional 52,000 jobs.

The average workweek remains unchanged at 34.6 hours but the average hourly earnings have decreased slightly to what they were in October at $24.57. Although this month shows a slight decline in hourly earnings, over the past year the average hourly earnings have increased by 1.7 percent.

BLS Revisions show additional 55,000 jobs

The December report revisions show that 50,000 additional jobs were added to the economy during the months of October and November. The October numbers went from 243,000 to 261,000 with an increase of 18,000 jobs and the November numbers changed from 321,000 to 353,000 adding 32,000 jobs.

Number of discouraged workers shows little change

Despite the economies steady job increase in 2014 the total number of persons marginally attached to the labor force show little change from the year prior at 2.3 million. The number of discouraged workers (those persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them) continues to remain relatively unchanged at 740,000 with an average of 736,000 in the last quarter of 2014. Although this number shows little movement it is an improvement from the year prior.

Author

Ajilon

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