December 2017 Report: U-Rate: 3.5%; Jobs: 63,000 YoY
OVERVIEW
- According to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the state’s total unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 percent in December from 3.6 percent in November.
- The state lost 500 jobs in the month.
- The state's labor force participation decreased one-tenth of a percentage point to 65.3 percent over the month. Compared to December 2016, the LFP rate over the year has increased by 0.7 percentage point.
- Construction gained 1,600 (+1.0%) jobs over the month and Manufacturing added 800 (+0.3%) jobs; Leisure and Hospitality gained 500 jobs (+0.1%); Financial Activities added 400 (+0.2%) jobs.
- Professional, Scientific and Business Services lost 1,000 (-0.2%) while Education and Health Services lost 1,000 (-0.1%)
- Other Services lost 200 (-0.1%) jobs over the month; Trade, Transportation and Utilities lost 500 (-0.1%) and Information lost 700 (-0.8%) and Government lost 100 jobs.
- The November jobs number was revised from the originally reported 6,700 to 7,800 jobs.
ANALYSIS
The December unemployment rate was six-tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate of 4.1 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest private sector percentage job gains over the year were in Construction, Manufacturing, Financial Activities and Leisure and Hospitality.
“While much of these [year over year] job gains continue to be in sectors like Professional, Business, and Scientific Services, Manufacturing posted a preliminary 2,800 over the year job gain, the first over the year over job gain in that sector in 18 years," Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said in yesterday's statement.
Over the last decade, Manufacturing has lost 43,100 jobs. (See table.) However, if we were to rank wages in the sectors with employment growth sectors such as Management and Professional Services, we find that manufacturing wages would rank 3rd (with $1,625 per week) and significantly higher than the private sector average of $1,273.
The state’s high-tech manufacturing may account for the high wages in an overall shrinking sector — highlighting how output increases with fewer workers. Weekly wages in the management subsector are nearly double when compared to all private industries.
