Jobs are growing in the United States and unemployment is falling. In fact, 252 new jobs were created in December, a figure higher than analysts' expectations, which stood at 240, while unemployment fell to 5,6%, against forecasts of a drop of 5,7%. .
A month beyond forecasts, therefore, which closes a positive year for the American economy: 2014 was the best year of job creation in 15 years, at 2,95 million.
Recruitments in December were generalized across all professional and corporate sectors. This bodes well for the recovery of the labor market and the performance of the economy as a whole, especially as 240.000 jobs have been created in the private sector and at least 200.000 jobs have been added for eleven consecutive months, the series best in almost twenty years.
Some clouds, however, continue to gather over the US labor market: almost 8,7 million people are looking for a job and labor force participation has dropped to 62,7%, the lowest since 1978 and, despite the progress made in this direction, the unemployment rate remains above the pre-crisis period.
Compensation also remains stagnant. Average wages fell 5 cents to $24,57 an hour, 0,2 percent less than the same period last year, while the work week remained unchanged at 34,6 hours.
