February 07, 2014
The index of aggregate weekly hours is still down by 0.1 percent from November.
The establishment survey showed the economy created just 113,000 jobs in January. Coupled with the 75,000 increase reported for December, this is the weakest two-month stretch since December, 2010-January 2011. However, the picture in the household survey was much better, with the employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio rising by 0.2 percentage points from 58.6 percent to 58.8 percent. This matches the previous high for the recovery in October of 2012. The unemployment rate edged down to 6.6 percent.
White workers disproportionately benefited from gains in employment with the EPOPs for both white men and white women rising by 0.4 percentage points. By age, the biggest gainers were younger workers. Employment for workers between the ages of 25-34 rose by 230,000, while employment for workers between the ages of 35-44 rose by 318,000, a one month increase of more than 1.0 percent.
For more, read the latest Jobs Byte.
