American employment ends the year in Olympic form

It’s a nice surprise for Washington. Job creation accelerated in December in the United States, causing the unemployment rate to fall slightly and undermining market expectations which were, on the contrary, anticipating a slowdown. Over the last month of the year, 256,000 jobs were created, more than the previous month, the figures of which were however revised slightly downwards (212,000 compared to 227,000 initially), bringing unemployment down to 4.1% (-0. 1 point), according to data published Friday by the Department of Labor.

This data surprised the markets. Analysts were, on the contrary, counting on a slowdown, forecasting 154,000 job creations and a stable unemployment rate, according to the consensus published by briefing.com. “Employment increased in health, public employment and social assistance. Local commerce has also started to rise again after job losses in November.detailed the ministry in its press release.

In the last quarter, employment initially suffered from the persistent strike at Boeing and the passage of two devastating hurricanes in the south of the country before starting to rise again in November. And a sign that the job market remains very solid, the number of people having lost “permanently their employment” is down over one month, even if it remains stable over a year, also showing a return to normal after two years of particularly positive figures in the wake of the post-Covid economic recovery. As a result of this healthy job market, wages also increased in December, by 0.3% over one month, slower than the previous slowest however, and in line with market expectations this time.

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Over one year, wages increased by an average of 3.9%, which is now higher than the rate of inflation, which reached 2.4% over one year in November, according to the PCE index favored by the Federal Reserve (Fed), the American central bank, for its monetary policy. The latter monitors employment figures closely, because its missions are to ensure both price stability and full employment. But as long as employment remains solid, it can continue to focus on the fight against inflation, which has still not returned to the hoped-for level of 2%, its long-term objective. Over the last months of the year, it even tended to accelerate a little, even though the Fed had begun its cycle of rate cuts, believing that inflation was on the right pace to return to the target. Its main rates are now located in a range between 4.25% and 4.50% and no reduction is expected by the markets at the next meeting, scheduled for the end of January.