New employment data: more civil servants and increase in part-time contracts

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report indicated that in December 216,000 new jobs were created. In addition, the unemployment rate remained below 4%.

The data was celebrated by Biden Administration officials. However, some economists suggest that the figure is not cause for celebration, since the majority of these jobs created (a quarter or about 52,000 positions) correspond to public officials.

In 2023, the Government created 676,000 new jobs (this represents a quarter of all new employment registered in the year or 56,000 per month). A figure that overall exceeds that of 2022:

BLS by Veronica Silveri on Scribd

New government jobs recorded last year were higher than those created for some other sectors: health care and services (600,000), leisure and hospitality (367,000), construction (171,000), retail trade (43,000) and manufacturing industries (1,000).

Labor force participation rate falls

The BLS report also revealed that the labor force participation rate (LFPR) sank in December (62.5%) to the lowest rate recorded since February 2023. This data is reflected in the results obtained in "household surveys," which showed that the number of people left the labor market last year: "The number of employed workers plummeted by 683,000 workers."

Likewise, the number of full-time contracts fell to record levels, by more than 1.53 million, to 133.2 million in total. This was also the sharpest decline since the time of covid-19 (almost 15 million fewer jobs). At the same time, full-time jobs fell, the number of part-time jobs increased (by 762,000 to 27,794 million), the highest figure recorded since March 2018.