The U.S. job market added 223,000 jobs during December and ended the year on a high note. Moreover, the data from Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the unemployment rate also reduced and is stood at 3.5% during December 2022.

Employment growth is better than expected

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the December job data on Friday and the data showed that the U.S. employers added more jobs than the estimations. Surprisingly, the nonfarm payrolls increased by 223,000 in December. According to Bloomberg’s survey, they estimated that another 200,000 jobs will be added in December. Moreover, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the jobs data for October and November. Although there is an increase in job numbers but the pace of job growth has slowed down in recent months. The U.S. economy added an average of 539,000 new positions per month in the first three months of 2022. However, the job numbers subsidized in later months. Overall, the U.S. nonfarm employers managed to add 4.5 million jobs during the year which is a very healthy number.

Unemployment and other employment indicators

Furthermore, the unemployment rate in U.S. fell from 3.6% to 3.5 %. According to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, the unemployment rate was expected to be 3.7%. Similarly, the labor force participation rose slightly compared to November. It to 62.3% from November’s labor force participation rate of 62.3%. Moreover, average hourly earnings climbed 4.6% year-over-year in December.

Leisure and hospitality led the job growth

Importantly, some major industries witnessed significant job growth in December 2022. Leisure & hospitality sector led the way and saw an increase of 67,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality sector was severely affected when the pandemic struck in 2020. The sector lost millions of jobs and is recovering from it. The employers of leisure and hospitality sector are finding it tough to hire workers. Hence, the sector is still behind pre-pandemic employment levels. Similarly, construction sector also performed well during the last month and added 28,000 jobs. However, sectors like professional and business services and information saw slight reduction in jobs. The loss in jobs for these jobs is due to mass layoffs in the tech sector.

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