The US labour market has now been creating jobs for 48 consecutive months, with the December figure above the average for the last 12 months, which is 186,000 new jobs.

The U.S. economy generated 256,000 new nonfarm jobs in December, up from 212,000 in November, while the unemployment rate fell by one-tenth of a point to 4.1%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The US labour market has now been creating jobs for 48 consecutive months, with the December figure above the average for the last 12 months, which is 186,000 new jobs.

In addition, the Ministry of Labour has revised the October figure upwards by 7,000 jobs, from 36,000 to 43,000, and the November figure downwards by 15,000, from 227,000 to 212,000. With these changes, 8,000 jobs have disappeared compared to what was previously reported.

The unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in December, three-tenths higher than in the same month in 2023. It has been fluctuating between 4.1% and 4.2% for the last seven months.

The number of unemployed in the last month of the year reached 6.886 million compared to 7.121 million in November, including 1.551 million long-term unemployed (those without work for 27 weeks or more) who represented 22.5% of the total number of unemployed.

The number of people working part-time for economic reasons fell by 111,000 to 4.358 million. The labour force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.5%.

SUBSIDY APPLICATIONS

The number of applications for unemployment benefits in the United States reached 201,000 last week, a decrease of 10,000 people compared to the previous figure.

The number of recipients of this benefit in the week ending December 28 totaled 1.867 million, equivalent to an increase in the number of beneficiaries of 33,000 people. In the same comparable period in 2023, the number of citizens receiving benefits reached 1.759 million.