U.S. adds 292,000 jobs in Dec.

WASHINGTON (Jan. 8, 2016) — Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 292,000 jobs in December, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 5 percent, the BLS said in its Jan. 8 report.

The employment sectors with the biggest gains were professional and business services (up 73,000 jobs); construction (up 45,000 jobs); health care (up 39,000 jobs); food services and drinking places (up 37,000 jobs); and transportation and warehousing (up 23,000 jobs).

Manufacturing, however, changed little in December, although non-durable manufacturing gained 14,000 jobs, the BLS said.

For the month, manufacturing gained only 8,000 jobs total, according to Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. For the full year, the U.S. added only 30,000 manufacturing jobs, he said.

“While the rest of the economy added more than 2.5 million jobs in 2015, manufacturing hiring was virtually flat,” Mr. Paul said.

“With China's currency devaluing, and its industrial capacity spreading pain across the globe, we can expect more bad news for American manufacturing in the months to come,” he said.

William C. Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, also was gloomy about U.S. employment prospects. The NFIB's December Jobs Report showed an increasing number of employers planning to reduce payroll, he said.

“The percentage of owners citing difficulty finding qualified workers as their ‘Single Most Important Business Problem' remained unchanged at 15 percent this month,” Mr. Dunkelberg said. “That makes it the third biggest problem for small business owners behind taxes and regulations/red tape.”

The day before the BLS released its figures, Mr. Dunkelberg predicted that December job gains would “come in on the weak side of 200,000.”

Two days before the new BLS statistics, payroll services firm ADP Inc. reported December job increases totaling 257,000, including 234,000 new jobs in service-producing industries and 23,000 in goods-producing industries.

All sizes of businesses posted strong gains in December, according to ADP. Small businesses added 95,000 jobs, including 51,000 in companies with 1-19 employees and 44,000 in companies with 20-49 employees.

Medium-sized businesses (50-499 employees) added 65,000 jobs in December, according to ADP. Large businesses gained 97,000 jobs, including 39,000 in businesses with 500-999 employees and 58,000 in businesses with 1,000 employees or more.

U.S. franchise employment grew by 48,600 jobs in December, including 8,400 in auto parts stores and dealerships, ADP said.