Employment Backpedals in December

The economy lost 140,000 jobs in December after seeing repeated gains month on month since May, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The pace of job additions had slowed significantly in November compared to October when additions were 245,000 and 638,000, respectively. The change in direction comes as the market enters the winter months and the pandemic is feared to surge and further impact the U.S. economy and job creation. In December, nonfarm employment was below its February level by more than 9.8 million, or 6.7 percent. Figure 1 shows the total number of nonfarm employed people in the U.S. since 2000.