Americans Refusing To Work?

Here’s what we know…

It appears that U.S. hiring slowed down in the month of December to the lowest rate in two years while the labor market remained resilient in the face of the hottest inflation in decades, higher interest rates and a possible recession.

According to Fox, employers added 223,000 jobs in December which beats the 200,000 job which were predicted by Refinitiv economists and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%.

Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office’s Mike Loewengart explained, “No doubt the labor market has been able to withstand prolonged rate hikes better than many expected. Remember though that monetary policy acts on a lag, so it’s likely an if and not a when for a slowdown in hiring. The Fed minutes made it clear that rates will remain high for all of 2023, so investors should prepare for a bumpy ride.”

What’s worse about all of this is that wage growth also slowed down in December and the average hourly earnings only increased 0.3% from from the previous month and 4.6% when compared to last year.

Comerica Bank’s top economist Bill Adams explained, “The December jobs report was stronger than expected, with solid job growth and the unemployment rate falling back to a half-century low. The Fed will see this jobs report as a green light for further rate hikes in early 2023.”