Tomorrow, Friday January 4th, the U.S. Labor Department will release the December jobs report which will offer an in-depth look at the labor market including: job additions, the unemployment rate, the labor participation rate and actual wage growth.

In the interim, the ADP National Employment Report provides a monthly snapshot of U.S. nonfarm private sector employment based on actual transactional payroll data. Their review of national payroll ledgers shows a stunning; 271,000 jobs added in December.

(link to ADP data – link to pdf)

FOX Business – […] “We wrapped up 2018 with another month of significant growth in the labor market,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Although there were increases in most sectors, the busy holiday season greatly impacted both trade and leisure and hospitality. Small businesses also experienced their strongest month of job growth all year.” The better-than-expected number can be attributed to good weather last month and strong holiday hiring, despite a tumultuous month for the markets, according to Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi. “Businesses continue to add aggressively to their payrolls despite the stock market slump and the trade war,” he said in a statement. “Favorable December weather also helped lift the job market. At the current pace of job growth, low unemployment will get even lower.” (more)

Also released today was an interesting snippet from inside the Bureau of Labor Statistics review of metropolitan unemployment regions:

…In November, Ames, IA, had the lowest unemployment rate, 1.2 percent. El Centro, CA, and Yuma, AZ, had the highest unemployment rates, 18.1 percent and 14.9 percent,respectively…. (link)