The focus of Friday's report is on wage growth.
- The US economy created 148,000 jobs in December, fewer than economists had forecast.
- The retail sector lost the most jobs amid a wave of store closures.
- Still, December was the 87th straight month that employers hired more people than they fired, extending the longest-ever stretch of job growth on record.
The US economy added 148,000 jobs in December, fewer than expected, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A plunge in retail jobs, by 20,300, weighed on the labor market as brick-and-mortar stores continued to close.
Still, December was the 87th straight month that employers hired more people than they fired, extending the longest-ever stretch of job growth on record. The economy created 2.06 million jobs last year.
Economists had forecast that 190,000 net nonfarm payrolls were added in December, according to Bloomberg.
The unemployment remained at 4.1%, a 17-year low that supports the Federal Reserve's assertion that the economy is near full employment. The black unemployment rate fell to a record low of 6.8%.
But the focus of Friday's report was on wage growth. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% month-on-month, little changed from November and as forecast, while they rose 2.5% from the previous year.
This still broadly reflects the sluggish pay increases we've seen through much of the recovery. With headline unemployment so low, employers should be competing for the best workers on pay. Some indicators like the Atlanta Fed’s alternative wage tracker do show this pay pressure. Also, the average hourly earnings are skewed as older, better paid workers retire and leave the equation.
Even after a slew of one-time bonus announcements since the President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it may take a while for the lower corporate rate to trickle down to workers' pockets in a sustained way.
"Don’t expect to see much impact on either jobs or wages anytime soon from the tax bill," wrote Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist, in a preview.