Big surprise in the United States this Friday, where job creation has just been announced twice as large as expected ...
Big surprise in the United States this Friday, where job creation has just been announced twice as large as expected. The latest government report on the employment situation for the month of December 2021 is therefore marked by the creation of only 199,000 non-agricultural jobs, against a FactSet consensus of around 400,000 creations and 249,000 a month earlier (reading November revised upwards all the same).
The unemployment rate, however, fell back to 3.9%, against 4.1% consensus and 4.2% a month before.
Job creation in the private sector stood at 211,000 against 270,000 in November. They are also almost half as many as expected.
The labor force participation rate stood at 61.9% against 61.8% a month earlier, in line with market expectations. Finally, the average hourly wage rose 0.6% compared to the previous month and is up 4.7% over one year, an increase much more substantial than expected.
The Bloomberg consensus, for its part, is 447,000 non-agricultural job creations, 405,000 in the private sector, 4.1% unemployment and + 0.4% for the average hourly wage.
Recall that ADP's latest report on private non-agricultural American employment for the month of December 2021 revealed 807,000 job creations, more than twice the market consensus which was around 400,000 jobs according to FactSet. 669,000 jobs were created in services and 138,000 in the production of goods.