***News Release***
Dan Celia: Today’s Jobs Numbers Signal Economy Is Still Moving in the Right Direction
PHILADELPHIA—“Massively better than expected.”
That was the bold TIME magazine headline today for the December jobs report, and nationally syndicated host and biblical stewardship authority Dan Celia says it’s a signal that the economy continues to move in the right direction.
U.S. employers added the most workers in 10 months—312,000—while wage gains accelerated and labor-force participation jumped. This reflects a robust job market, TIME reported, even with risks that may be faced this year. Average hourly earnings rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier, and the jobless rate rose from a five-decade low to 3.9 percent, meaning more people are actively seeking work.
“I know it’s hard to believe when you look at the markets, but I’ve been saying for a long time that the underlying fundamentals of this economy remain strong,” Celia said. “A jobs report of 312,000 new private-sector jobs is good news, but the really great news is that the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent from a 49-year low of 3.7 percent. This means that the labor participation rate is moving up and people are coming back into the workforce. They are looking for jobs, applications are being made and, obviously, many are finding jobs. Also, the hours worked per week are finally up. In the past 12 months, wages gained and are now up 3.2 percent. It has been many years since we’ve seen numbers like that. One down side is that traders will wonder now if the Fed will hike rates for 2019 if these numbers continue to get better.”
Celia discusses these and other global and economic headlines on his daily, three-hour “Financial Issues” program, heard on about 650 television and radio stations nationwide and reaching millions more on several television networks. Through the program, writing and daily interactions, Celia, who leads Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries (FISM, www.FinancialIssues.org), has helped people of faith honor God with their finances and be free from a fear of money.
Read more about Celia, FISM and “Financial Issues” or visit the FISM website, its Facebook page, on YouTube at Financial Issues with Dan Celia or on Twitter @financialissues; download the FISM app here.
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