Despite the negative banter from the gnats the U.S. economy is continuing to outpace economic expectations. More importantly the gains are within targeted sectors long-ago written off. Yes, Trump’s MAGAnomic policies are proving it was always possible.

Job gains exceeded 280,000 as the Main Street economy continues gaining momentum. The manufacturing sector added 31,000, a slight deviation from ADP payroll actuaries a week ago, which remains a complete reversal of prior historic job growth. For the past three decades manufacturing jobs had been shrinking, now the sector is growing. This is the important part of the overall picture.

The unemployment rate remains at 4.1%, because the underlying data has been strongly manipulated for the past several years. If the data ran negative the statistical ruse would be evident; so the explanation remains that workers who left the economy have reentered, ie. “slack“. :::eyeroll:::

Wage growth was estimated at 2.5%, which is in line with our previous analysis. We do not anticipate massive wage rate gains until the full ‘slack‘ is taken up within the employment market. Our prediction remains that Quarter #2 2018 (April, May, June) will be approximately the time-frame when wage rates increase at 5% and more.

(Reuters) […] Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The government revised data for October to show the economy adding 244,000 jobs instead of the previously reported 261,000 positions. November’s report was the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data. The growth in employment was broad in November. Construction payrolls increased by 24,000 jobs, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes, after rising 10,000 in October. Manufacturing scored another month of solid job gains, with payrolls increasing by 31,000 jobs after rising 23,000 in the prior month. Retail payrolls grew by 18,700 jobs last month, the largest gain since January. Employment at department stores increased by 3,100 jobs, likely boosted by hiring for the holiday season. (read more)