Edward Lotterman
December labor market numbers show great strength in our nation’s economy: Some 216,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month, making a 2.7 million job growth in the year, the third-best showing in this century.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.7%. This was the 25th consecutive month below 4%, something not seen since the 1960s. Diane Swonk, chief economist for KPMG, said, “In many ways, the labor market is at its best place it has been, not only since (before COVID), but by some measures in decades.”
The value of total output grew at a blistering annualized rate of 8.2% in the third quarter of 2023, the last for which we have data. Compared with the same quarter in 2022, it was 6.2 percentage points higher. This is very strong.
On the inflation front: Consumer prices rose at a 1.2% annual rate in November and were 3.1% higher than 12 months…
