You cannot help but comment on December’s jobs report. It was almost twice as strong as expected at 312,000 new jobs created for December. For October and November the numbers were revised up by about 100,000. Meanwhile the unemployment rate went up, not down, to 3.9% from a 40 year low of 3.7%. A significant number of previously uncounted workers re-entered the labor pool. This was the fourth week in a row that more people entered the labor pool. Last month it was 1.6 million more people thus an increase in the unemployment number.

These people were considered out of the labor market permanently either because there were never going to be enough jobs to employ them, they had no skills, or maybe they are too old to employ. This strong economy has produced more jobs than unemployed persons, so those that were unemployable have now become viable job seekers.

Let’s all enjoy our country’s good fortune as we enter the New Year.