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BUSINESS Saturday 11 January 2020
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U.S. adds 145,000 jobs; unemployment holds at 3.5%

By JOSH BOAK over the past year to 5.75
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. million. With fewer unem-
employers downshifted on ployed people hunting for
hiring in December, adding jobs, there is a potential
145,000 jobs, with steady limit on job gains.
spending by Americans The steady hiring growth
continuing to steer eco- during the expansion has
nomic growth heading contributed to gains in
into a presidential election consumer spending. Re-
year. tail sales during the crucial
The Labor Department said holiday shopping improved
Friday that the unemploy- 3.4% compared to the prior
ment rate held at 3.5% for year, according to Master-
the second straight month, card SpendingPulse. This
prolonging a half-century likely contributed to a surge
low. Hiring slipped after ro- of hiring in retail as that sec-
bust gains of 256,000 in No- tor added 41,200 jobs in
vember there were caused December.
in part by the one-off end The leisure and hospital-
of a strike at General Mo- ity sector — which includes
tors. restaurants and hotels —
"We're starting 2020 in very added another 40,000 jobs.
good shape," said Gus Fau- In this Sept. 18, 2019, file photo people stand in line to inquire about jobs available at the Bean Health care and social as-
cher, chief economist at Automotive Group during a job fair in Miami. On Friday, Jan. 10, 2020, the U.S. government issues sistance accounted 33,900
PNC Financial Services. "We the December jobs report. new jobs.
should see continued eco- Associated Press Still, the report suggests a
nomic expansion through- lingering weakness in man-
out 2020 driven by consum- education. wages. "We gave all of our front- ufacturing.
ers." Job growth has failed so far Some businesses in com- line employees a 10% or Factories shed 12,000 jobs
The state of the job mar- to translate into substan- petitive industries are al- 11% raise because of the in December, after the end
ket has become a pivotal tially better hourly pay. The ready taking steps to pre- fear we have about the of the GM strike produced
division between President pace of annual average pare for wage competition wage pressures in the gains of 58,000 in Novem-
Donald Trump and his Dem- wage growth slowed in De- this year. The Big Blue Swim economy," said CEO Chris ber. Manufacturing com-
ocratic challengers. Trump cember to 2.9% from 3.3% School based in Chicago Kenny. "We can't meet our panies added just 46,000
can campaign on the low a year ago, a possible sign vies with day cares, learn- business goal without great jobs in all of 2019.
unemployment rate and that there is still room for ad- ing centers and gyms for staff." Manufacturing struggled
job growth as he seeks a ditional job gains despite its instructors. The chain has The U.S. economy added last year because of trade
second term. Democrats, the decade-plus expansion five sites employing on av- 2.1 million jobs last year, tensions between the
seeking to oust him, will that has reduced the num- erage 30 people and plans down from gains of nearly United States and China
point to wages that have ber of unemployed Ameri- to open five more schools 2.7 million in 2018. Hiring coupled with slower global
not taken off in a mean- cans. There is also the po- this year and 17 in 2021. But may have slowed because economic growth. Safety
ingful for many Americans tential that wages jumped it had to dramatically boost the number of unemployed problems at Boeing have
coping with highs costs for in January as many states wages in order to attract people seeking work has also hurt orders for aircraft
medical care and higher adjusted their minimum staff for that expansion. fallen by 540,000 people and parts.q

2014 Fed conundrum: How to alert markets rates were going up

WASHINGTON (AP) — In her ing to their policy state- siderable time."
first year as Federal Reserve ment at the December The committee approved
chair, Janet Yellen presid- 2014 meeting. They sought this change on a 7-3 vote, a
ed over a policy panel di- to alert financial markets highly unusual split for such
vided over the issue of how — without causing alarm — a relatively modest change
much longer the central that the Fed might start rais- in the policy statement.
bank could afford to keep ing its key policy rate in 2015 One of the dissenters, Rich-
its benchmark interest rate after keeping that rate at a ard Fisher, then president
at a record low, and how record low near zero since of the Fed's Dallas regional
to prepare financial mar- the depths of financial crisis bank, argued in the meet-
kets for the start of rate in December 2008. ing that he believed im-
hikes. The committee ended up provements in the econ-
According to transcripts splitting the difference by omy's performance since
of the Fed's discussions re- saying that it planned to October had moved for-
leased Friday, Yellen and be "patient'' with its start ward the timing of when
the majority of the panel to rate hikes. But to guard the Fed would need to start In this Aug. 14, 2019, file photo former Fed Chair Janet Yellen
debated the reasons that against a market overreac- raising interest rates. Rich- speaks with FOX Business Network guest anchor Jon Hilsenrath
inflation remained stub- tion, the panel decided to ard Plosser, then head of in the Fox Washington bureau in Washington.
bornly below the Fed's 2% emphasize that this change the Philadelphia Fed and
target even as unemploy- in wording was "consis- another dissenter, object- being seen in the econo- by signaling possible rate
ment kept falling. tent" with the Fed's previ- ed to using any wording my. hikes, the central bank was
The transcripts showed Fed ous statements that said it that linked the first rate hike By contrast, Narayana Ko- putting at risk the credibility
officials struggling to adopt planned to keep rates at to a passage of time, given cherlakota, then head of of its stated goal of achiev-
a modest change in word- their current low "for a con- the improvements already the Minneapolis Fed, said ing 2% inflation.q