Data Point - More good news - Jobs report - Granite Grok

Data Point – More good news – Jobs report

Private payrolls grow by 234,000 in January, vs 185,000 expected: ADP/Moody’s Analytics

Private companies hired 234,000 jobs in January, well above expectations for 185,000, according to ADP and Moody’s Analytics.
Service-related industries led with 212,000 new jobs; manufacturing added 12,000 and construction 9,000.
The report often differs significantly from the government’s more closely watched nonfarm payrolls count, with ADP reporting growth of 242,000 in December vs. the Labor Department’s 148,000.

Job report Jan 2018

This is good news as well, as Trump said he’d bring manufacturing back to the US:

The manufacturing sector added 15,000 jobs in January, bringing the total number of manufacturing jobs added since President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016 to 216,000. Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, manufacturing jobs have climbed by 186,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  In November 2016, there were 12,339,000 people employed in the manufacturing sector. By January 2017, that had climbed to 12,369,000. By December 2017, it had risen to 12,540,000; and, by January 2018, according to the numbers released today, it had risen to 12,555,000.

The last time the United States had more than 12,555,000 employed in manufacturing was in January 2009, the month President Barack Obama was inaugurated. In that month, there were 12,561,000 employed in manufacturing. But in February 2009, the month after Obama’s inauguration, manufacturing employment dropped to 12,380,000, according to the BLS.

From my perspective, we are seeing that with the proper policies in place, we don’t have to believe that Obama’s “new normal” was normal at all.  Get Government out of the way, let people and companies keep more of their own money, and good things start happening.

And FINALLY, wages are starting to rise and rise above the nominal rate of inflation:

We’ve been waiting for faster wage growth and now we have it. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent in January and are up 2.9 percent in the past year, the largest increase for any twelve months since 2008–09. The difference is that, back then, wage growth was decelerating from an even faster pace and now we have wage growth that’s accelerating instead. Look for more acceleration in the months ahead as the effects of lower tax rates (particularly on companies) and deregulation ripple through the economy, encouraging more investment in the U.S.

>