US employers went on a surprising hiring bonus in December

WASHINGTON (AP) – US employers made a recruitment bonus in December, adding a surprising 312,000 jobs and providing a dose of insurance for the economy after a turbulent few months on Wall Street.

The job gains reported Friday by the Ministry of Labor came in despite their trade crisis with China, a global decline and a partial government of closure now entering their third week.

The nation's unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9 per cent last year, but it was also considered a positive sign, reflecting an increase in Americans starting to search for employment. And the average hourly wage improved 3.2 percent from a year ago.

Shares increased on the news, along with the words that the US and China will hold trade talks next week and comments from the Federal Reserve mayor Jerome Powell that the Fed will be flexible in judging to further raise interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up around 700 points in the afternoon, an increase of about 3 percent. President Donald Trump called the job growth "GREAT" on Twitter.

The noisy hiring in December was well over the 1[ads1]80,000 jobs that investors had been waiting for, and could help fear that the economy's expansion – now in the middle of its tenth year – might come to an end.

"The labor market is very strong, even if the economy seems to slow down," said Eric Winograd, senior US economist at the investment firm AllianceBernstein. "These two things cannot co-exist long. Whether weaker demand will cause companies to call in the pace of hiring or the robust pace of hiring, businesses will ramp up production."

In recent weeks, financial markets have Doubt doubted that the United States could be in a recession in 2020. Dow suffered its worst December since the middle of the depression in 1931.

Large corporations like Apple say their sales are threatened by the Washington-Beijing tariff war and an important Measuring US production posted its China, the world's second largest economy, is also concerned with a slowdown, and consumers lose much of their appetite for property, iPhones, Ford vehicles and Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

] The US Government's closure and Trump's attacks on the Fed and its head of central bank rate increases have also worried investors, although Powell may have relieved some of the worries Friday when he stressed that he would not retire if the president told him to do it.

The strong job growth suggests that employers believe consumer spending will remain robust.

Health and education left 82,000 jobs last month, the biggest jump of almost nine years. Restaurants and drinking places have a net gain of 40,700 jobs. Builders added 38,000 construction jobs, while manufacturers increased their wages by 32,000 workers.

Businesses are still looking for more workers.

Fresh Coat Painters, based in Cincinnati, are nearly planning to double the 300 employees painting homes and businesses as it expands this year across the country. The franchisee also launches an apprenticeship program to attract workers, as well as providing higher pay and benefits.

Tara Riley, president of Fresh Coat, said franchisees need to actively search for workers rather than simply posting ads. 19659002] "We realized there was a change of mindset: You need to recruit, rather than hire," Riley said.

Nevertheless, Kevin Hassett, head of the White House Council for Economic Advisers, warned on Thursday that the jobs are reporting for January, it may be weak if the closure continues. The job figures can be lowered by hundreds of thousands of government officials temporarily put out of work.

"So when we see the January job, it can be a big negative," Hassett said.

In 2018, employers were added 2.6 million jobs, or on average nearly 220,000 a month, according to the Ministry of Labor.

At some point, even though the economy remains healthy, monthly job gains are likely to slow down to a gradual pace. This is because there is a dizzying pool of unemployed. There were 6.3 million people looking for a job in December, down from 6.5 million a year ago.

"People shouldn't get used to numbers like what we saw this month," said Martha Gimbel, head of economic research at the job site actually. "Finally, job growth will begin to decline. When that happens, we shouldn't panic."