Newsroom
February 05, 2016
Labor market improving, says NAFCU's Long
Meaningful improvements in the employment participation rate over the past six months suggest that "sidelined workers are being brought back into the labor pool," NAFCU's Curt Long said, quoted in MarketWatch for a piece on Friday's jobs report.
Long, NAFCU's chief economist and director of research, said the data shows the labor market is "drawing near to full employment," The Business Journals reported.
The data, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is reviewed in a NAFCU Macro Data Flash report sent to members Friday.
The data shows non-farm payrolls in January rose by 151,000 as 502,000 workers joined the labor force – marking the strongest month since January 2015 – but still down from recent months. For example, Long said, the labor market averaged 279,000 in job gains in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The unemployment rate in January fell to 4.9 percent. December's employment numbers were revised downward by 30,000 to 262,000, while November's were revised upward by 28,000 to 280,000.
"Among prime-age workers, labor force participation is up 0.6 percentage points in December and January, which ties for the strongest two-month growth since the onset of the recession," Long said. "Wage growth remains stuck at 2.5 percent, which is low by historical standards but still comfortably above inflation. Overall, the labor market appears to still be tightening and may be approaching full employment."
Average hourly earnings rose by 12 cents to $25.39 in January.
With this report being a mixed bag, Long said it should not weigh on the Fed's rate decision in March.
Long was also quoted in Bankrate and Housing Wire on Friday.
Long, NAFCU's chief economist and director of research, said the data shows the labor market is "drawing near to full employment," The Business Journals reported.
The data, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is reviewed in a NAFCU Macro Data Flash report sent to members Friday.
The data shows non-farm payrolls in January rose by 151,000 as 502,000 workers joined the labor force – marking the strongest month since January 2015 – but still down from recent months. For example, Long said, the labor market averaged 279,000 in job gains in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The unemployment rate in January fell to 4.9 percent. December's employment numbers were revised downward by 30,000 to 262,000, while November's were revised upward by 28,000 to 280,000.
"Among prime-age workers, labor force participation is up 0.6 percentage points in December and January, which ties for the strongest two-month growth since the onset of the recession," Long said. "Wage growth remains stuck at 2.5 percent, which is low by historical standards but still comfortably above inflation. Overall, the labor market appears to still be tightening and may be approaching full employment."
Average hourly earnings rose by 12 cents to $25.39 in January.
With this report being a mixed bag, Long said it should not weigh on the Fed's rate decision in March.
Long was also quoted in Bankrate and Housing Wire on Friday.
Share This
Related Resources
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 ChatGPT: What AI can do for you! ChatGPT has been created with one main objective – to predict the next word in a sentence, based on what's typically happened in the gigabytes of text data that it's been trained on. Did you ever hear of the saying, “People fear the unknown?” Artificial intelligence scares people, but it is the future, and you need to understand the tools and resources it offers. It’s also about saving time, that’s what technology and in this case, artificial intelligence can do for you. If you want to save time and have a better quality of life, this training is for you. Once you give ChatGPT a question or prompt, it passes through the AI model and the chatbot produces a response based on the information you've given and how that fits into its vast amount of training data. It's during this training that ChatGPT has learned what word, or sequence of words, typically follows the last one in a given context. During this webinar, ChatGPT: What AI can do for you, you’ll discover the background, purpose, usability, and the pros and cons. Don't miss this opportunity! Key Takeaways Learn the background of AI Understand the purpose of AI Identify the pros and cons Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 25, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCRMs Risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
ChatGPT: What AI can do for you!
Credits: NCRM
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs About the Webinar In part one we discussed how to retain key positions during a time of transition. In part two, we will look at how to combine executive benefits programs from two different organizations into a single high-performing program. Evaluating each program includes many different facets, from strategy and expense to performance and servicing. This session will provide important considerations, whether or not you have pending M&A activity. Key Takeaways: Is the plan design both retentive and efficient? Is the benefit expense properly mitigated? Does the legal agreement reflect the board’s intent? View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs
preferred partner
Gallagher
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-24 14:00:00 2024-04-24 14:00:00 Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage About The Webinar Join us to learn more about network lending, a cooperative model allowing credit unions to optimize liquidity and achieve loan growth. Discover how credit unions can participate in loan pools with other institutions, allowing them to diversify portfolios, access loans with potentially lower risk and higher yields, and expand lending capacity without necessarily needing a surge in deposits. Delve into how credit unions can pool their resources, set common underwriting and pricing standards, and collectively originate, buy, and sell loans to optimize liquidity management. Hear from your peers about best practices, case studies, and practical strategies to harness the full potential of network lending and how it's helped their credit unions. Don't miss this valuable opportunity to learn how to strengthen your credit union's position in today’s competitive environment. Key Takeaways: How network lending differs from traditional lending The benefits of participating in loan pools with other credit unions How credit unions can set common underwriting and pricing standards and collectively originate, buy and sell loans to optimize liquidity management Why network lending is critical to loan growth Watch On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage
preferred partner
LendKey
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-23 14:00:00 2024-04-23 14:00:00 Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks Credit unions’ operations pose litigation risks, with more of these cases being filed as class action lawsuits. In this Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks for Credit Unions webinar, you’ll review some of the specific kinds of lawsuits impacting credit unions and what potential claims could be on the horizon. You’ll also examine some options for mitigating risks. Key Takeaways Review the current lawsuit trends. Understand the potential claims risks Explore options for mitigating risks. Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 23, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCCOs NCRMs Compliance and risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar NCCOs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks
Credits: NCCO, NCRM
Webinar
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.