Monthly U.S. Jobs Report

The first Friday of most months brings a new chapter in the U.S. government’s running chronicle of economic health: The monthly jobs report. It’s a list of numbers that calls forth so many widely varying responses that it can seem like a nerd’s Rorschach test. Stock and bond markets gyrate in response to it. Central bankers parse it for policymaking guidance. In many months, different parts of the data seem to support contradictory points of view. President Donald Trump, who once questioned whether its numbers are accurate, has taken to tweeting positively about them. To understand the statistics it helps to know why and how each number is compiled. But even then it may be useful to keep more than a few grains of salt handy when you hear huge conclusions being drawn.

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits has declined to the lowest level in more than four decades. Private employers have added jobs for nearly eight years. The share of people working part-time rather than full-time for economic reasons has fallen. Even the participation rate, the measure of those working or looking for jobs, has been stable after falling to lows not seen since the 1970s. Wages, long dormant, are finally heading up, though slowly.