U.S. employment rate rises slowly in December amid labor shortage

• Nonfarm payrolls increased by 199,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said

• In November, unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.2%

U.S. employment rose at a steady rate in December amid worker shortages and is expected to remain moderate as Covid-19 infections rise exponentially.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 199,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. November’s data was also revised to 249,000 jobs instead of 210,000, as earlier reported while the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.2%.

Low employment in December reflects labor shortages. Earlier this week, the government said that there were 10.6 million job openings at the end of November. Businesses and households were surveyed in mid-December for the information just when the Omicron variant had hit the country.

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Omicron spread

The United States reported almost 1 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, the highest number of cases reported by any country in a day.

Thousands of flights have been canceled and work from office plans have been delayed due to the spike in cases.

People who are not paid while in quarantine are counted as unemployed in the payrolls survey, even if they have a job.

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It was noted that unemployed people were rejoining the labor market in the fall due to the end of jobless benefits, but the return now may slow down with increasing cases.

The labor force participation rate, which had fallen to multi-decade low during the start of the pandemic, is improving quite slowly.

Labor force participation rate is the proportion of working-age people who have a job are looking for jobs.

Picture Credits: Reuters