US payrolls shatter expectations, surge 312,000 in December
by James Langford
| January 04, 2019 08:35 AM
U.S. employers added 312,000 workers in December as the economy benefited from retail hiring during the busy holiday shopping season and the country's economic expansion continued.
The increase reported by the U.S. Labor Department on Friday topped the average estimate of 180,000 from economists surveyed by FactSet and remained well above the level needed to keep up with inflation. The unemployment rate, however, inched up to 3.9 percent from a nearly 50-year low of 3.7 percent.
Retailers hired 24,000 new employees during the month as purchases in stores and e-commerce sites surged to the highest in six years. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, retail spending grew 5.1 percent to $850 billion, according to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report released the day after Christmas.
Other notable hiring gains occurred in the healthcare industry, which added 50,000 workers, and bars and restaurants, which brought in 41,000 new employees. Payroll growth for November, meanwhile, was boosted to 176,000 from an original figure of 155,000.
Still, employment growth is likely to slow this year as benefits from the 2017 tax cut for businesses fade, said Michael Gapen, an economist with British lender Barclays Plc. He predicts gains of about 160,000 a month, compared with an average of about 200,000 for much of 2018.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/us-payrolls-shatter-expectations-surge-312-000-in-december