The US Labor Department always discusses jobs added each month, but, there are significant job losses as well.
The wealth of Wall Street is not the picture of the country.
The picture in December of most any year is always better than any other month of the year because of the holidays. The overall view is different.
Another interesting measure is the labor force participation rate: which in the last quarter of 2017 shows chronic low rates.Predictions for 2018 are not much better. (click here)
Oddly enough, December 2017 didn't meet expectations. Nearly 25 percent below expections. The largest gain in employment was food service workers.
Non-farm (click here) payrolls in the US increased by 148K in December of 2017, below market expectations of a 190K. Solid gains were reported in construction, manufacturing and health care while retail trade continued to cut jobs.
In 2017, payroll employment growth totaled 2.1 million, compared with a gain of 2.2 million in 2016.
Employment in health care increased by 31,000 in December. Employment continued to trend up in ambulatory health care services (+15,000) and hospitals (+12,000). Health care added 300,000 jobs in 2017, compared with a gain of 379,000 jobs in 2016....
And were the jobs added high paying jobs? The blue lines are for the month of December and the gray lines are for the 2017 average.
Leisure and hospitality employment continued to trend up in December (+29,000), adding a total of 306,000 jobs in 2017. This industry accounted for 15 percent of all total nonfarm jobs added in 2017. Employment in food services and drinking places was little changed in December (+25,000). In 2017, employment in the industry increased by 249,000, after rising by 276,000 over the prior year. December 6, 2017
By Christopher Weber and Geoff Mulvhill
Los Angeles — The nation's homeless population increased this year (click here) for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point in Time count Wednesday, a report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January. That figure is up nearly 1 percent from 2016.
Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9 percent compared to two years ago.
Increases are higher in several West Coast cities, where the explosion in homelessness has prompted at least 10 city and county governments to declare states of emergency since 2015....
The 2017 family income numbers won't be in for a while yet, but, under President Obama 2016 was a record high.
Real income per capita measures the per person income. The household income reflects more than one wage earner.
...Current Average Income (click here)
The 2016 nominal median income per capita was $31,099. The mean income per capita was $46,550. The Census Bureau reports those in the Current Population Survey, Table PINC-01.
Real median household income was $59,039 in 2016. That's the first time income exceeded the 2007 level of $58,149. It's also slightly higher than the 2015 income of $57,230. The first increase since the Great Recession was in 2015. All are reported in 2016 dollars. The Census report household income in Table A-1.
The federal government uses the median household income to establish poverty levels. That determines eligibility for Obamacare subsidies and welfare programs.
Real median family income was $72,707 in 2016. That's higher than the 2007 peak of $71,024 (as measured in 206 dollars). It's also more than the 2015 level of $71,590. The government uses the family income for statistical purposes, such as reporting the poverty threshold....
This is the definition of household and family. Households can have other than a family living within them.
A family (click here) consists of two or more people (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption residing in the same housing unit. A household consists of all people who occupy a housing unit regardless of relationship. A household may consist of a person living alone or multiple unrelated individuals or families living together.
