The January Employment Situation Summary from the BLS was quite positive. Total non-farm employment increased 234,000 and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%.
More importantly, private employment increased by 257,000, more than off-setting a small decline in government employment. This continues a trend towards stronger private sector hiring. Over the last 12 months private sector employment is up 2.1% while government employment is down 1.2% (this nets to a 1.5% overall increase).
This is really good news - private sector hiring is always the key to economic growth.
Despite the good news, the economy still has a long way to go. The workforce participation rate fell slightly to 63.7%, which is the lowest it's been since 1982. Also, there are about 5.6 million fewer people working than just prior to the recession, and the number of long-term unemployed is still a very high 5.5 million.
But overall a solid jobs report that shows the economy is on a solid, if modest, growth path.
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