Construction boosts December employment


The U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs overall in December, hitting above the average monthly growth rate of 246,000 for 2014. Construction took home a sizeable chunk of the growth, with building material and garden supply stores adding 2,400 jobs.

As such, the unemployment rate is now down to a post-recession low of 5.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This indicates a decline in the total number of unemployed persons by 383,000 to 8.7 million.

Professional and business services saw the most new jobs in December (52,000), followed by construction (48,000). Within that category, specialty trade contractors added 26,000 new jobs.

There were also 17,000 new manufacturing jobs added, headed up mostly by durable goods (13,000).

Employment in retail trade was little changed last month, though the industry saw a lot of movement in November.

For the most part, the number of long-term unemployed, those employed part-time for economic reasons and those marginally attached to the labor force were largely static, though there was some movement in the number of discouraged workers. Among the marginally attached, the number of discouraged workers was down by 177,000 year-over-year.