Construction hiring rose by 30,000 persons on the strength of strong moves in the two categories that make up specialty trade contractors. 4.7 million persons work in that part of the industry and they are about evenly split between those who work in the residential sector and those who work in the nonresidential sector. These […]

The 32,000 person gain in manufacturing employment was spearheaded by a 21,000 person increase in durable goods employment. Half of that came from motor vehicles and parts. More than half of the 11,000 person gain in nondurable manufacturing came from the 6,800 rise in food. All of this is consistent with an economy that is […]

The numbers match the news. Retailing, especially brick and mortar retailing, is under extreme pressure. Subscribe now!

Health care, meanwhile, continued to move ahead at a brisk pace. Hospital employment was up another 13,000 in October, while ambulatory care rose by 14,200. Overall, we added another 35,600 jobs in this sector. As of October, we have 16.1 million persons working in health care. Subscribe now!

The headline number on total nonfarm payrolls came in well above the consensus estimate. Did this mean anything? Two big reasons why the October headline number is nothing special: 1) It is not even the best one of the year. 2) It is not even as large as the number from October of last year […]

The numbers here don’t include any effects of recently announced changes in the wage structure at Amazon, changes that are expected to resonate throughout the retail sector. What the numbers here suggest to me is that employers are going resist raising wages for as long as they can. They will continue to use other forms […]

The wage and hours news continues to be less than robust. We are holding this line above 3% (barely) because hours worked continue to rise. Hourly wages are going sideways. Subscribe now!