Economic News
U.S. adds jobs for 10th Straight Year, hiring pace slows in December 2019
Employers added 145000 jobs in December 2019 and unemployment stayed at a 50-year low of 3.5 %, capping a tenth straight year of payroll gains.
Private-sector wages advanced 2.9% from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since July 2018. And revisions showed payrolls for November and October were revised down by a net 14000.
Women overtook men to hold the majority of U.S. jobs for the first time in a decade, while employers added positions for a record 10th straight year, pointing to a growing and dynamic economy heading into 2020.
The number of women on nonfarm payrolls exceeded men in December for the first time since mid-2010, the Labour Department said Friday. Women held 50.04 % of jobs last month, surpassing men on payrolls by 109000.
“Increasingly, the fortunes of women in the labour market will determine the overall outcomes of the labour market because they will be the predominant share,” said Marianne Wanamaker, a labour economist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and former adviser to President Trump.
Overall, the economy added a seasonally adjusted 145000 jobs last month, and unemployment stayed at a 50-year low of 3.5 %. In one dark spot, wages advanced 2.9 % from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since July 2018. Stock-market indexes finished lower Friday after rising earlier in the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly crossing the 29000 mark.
The gap between men and women on payrolls had been narrowing in recent years, reflecting growth in services industries that employ higher numbers of women, especially the booming health-care field. That is a different outcome than the one other time that women outnumbered men—a stretch in 2009 and 2010—when men disproportionately lost construction and manufacturing jobs.
OECD annual inflation picks up to 1.8% in November 2019
Annual inflation in the OECD area picked up to 1.8 % in November, compared with 1.6 % in October 2019. Annual inflation excluding food and energy also increased, marginally, to 2.1 % in November compared with 2.0 % in October. Food prices rose by 1.6 % in November, compared with 1.4 % in October while energy price deflation slowed to (minus) 1.1 % in November compared with (minus) 3.0 % in October.
In November 2019, annual inflation increased in Canada (to 2.2 %, from 1.9 %), the United States (to 2.1 %, from 1.8 %), Japan (to 0.5 % from 0.2 %) and France (to 1.0 %, from 0.8 %) while it was stable in the United Kingdom (at 1.5 %), Germany (at 1.1 %) and Italy (at 0.2 %).
Annual inflation in the Euro area, as measured by the HICP[1], increased to 1.0 % in November, compared with 0.7 % in October. Excluding food and energy, euro area inflation also increased, to 1.3 %, compared with 1.1 % in October. Eurostat’s flash estimate for December points to annual inflation picking up to 1.3 % while inflation excluding food and energy was stable at 1.3 %.
Annual inflation in the G20[2] area increased to 3.6 % in November, compared with 3.2 % in October. Among non-OECD G20 economies, annual inflation picked up in Argentina (to 52.1 %, from 50.5 %), India (to 8.6 %, from 7.6 %), Brazil (to 3.3 % from 2.5 %) and China (to 4.5 %, from 3.8 %). In Saudi Arabia prices continued to fall, albeit at a slower pace (minus 0.1 % in November, compared with minus 0.3% in October). Annual inflation decreased in the Russian Federation (to 3.5 %, from 3.8 %), South Africa (to 3.6%, from 3.7 %) and Indonesia (to 3.0 %, from 3.1 %).
