Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her insights on the jobs report released this morning, which showed 216,000 jobs added in December. Read the full thread here.

Payroll survey reports a strong labor market, household survey weaker:
+ payroll jobs up 216,000, with broad based gains, particularly in govt, health care, social assistance, and construction
– the unemployment rate held steady, but employment and participation ticked down

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 5, 2024

Job gains were particularly strong in health care and social assistance, government, leisure and hospitality, and construction. There were notable losses in transportation and warehousing. pic.twitter.com/mnx0UmiUbh

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 5, 2024

Govt jobs up 52k in Dec, mostly in state and local employment. State+local is up 0.1% since Feb 2020. State+local education jobs are also growing, but still haven’t closed the gap. There’s been nontrivial population growth since then so hopefully we will see these gains continue. pic.twitter.com/UZJKsXpfF7

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 5, 2024

The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, at or below 4.0% for 25 months in a row. And, yet, labor force participation and employment fell in the household survey in December. The employment-to-population ratio for workers ages 25-54 dropped in December, hopefully a blip. pic.twitter.com/mSKGqByeE6

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) January 5, 2024