The December employment report was rather weak. Some economists were excited by the news that the unemployment rate fell by a whopping 0.1%.... right back to where it was a few months ago. In fact, outside of November’s 4.5%, December’s 4.4% reading was the highest in over four years (the gap in the blue line is due to the government shutdown).
Things got worse from there. The economy created only 50,000 jobs in December, well below expectations of around 75,000. And as usual, the jobs were much too highly concentrated in one industry, as healthcare made up 42% of all the gains. In fact, over the past twelve months, healthcare has accounted for a disturbingly lopsided 69% of all job gains. That’s an unhealthy way to grow an economy.