It is all over the news of late "Disappointing Job Report", "Lower Job Numbers; Only 74,000 Jobs Created", and so on. It truly was a disappointing December job report, especially coming on the heels of several good but not great ones. However, many factors go into creating the monthly job report, some may change and the number could go up in revisions next month. The numbers may also be the result of seasonal or other factors, not part of the usual seasonal factors.
One interesting fact from the job report is that for the first time in 10 years the health sector didn't add any jobs in a monthly report. This is astonishing because it has almost been an unwritten law that health care will add jobs. As health care costs have increased, the sector has continually added jobs. Of late the health sector has not been growing as fast but is still growing. The article below cites several reasons, one that is not mentioned but occured to me is Obamacare.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/10/news/economy/health-care-jobs/
The article says that the industry needed a breather and that a slowdown was inevitable with the decreasing cost increases. But the costs have been decreasing all year, why would it shrink in this last month? Well there are many common budgetary and organizational reasons for laying off employees at the end of the year, but I think other factors played a sizable role. In my mind, Obamacare was one of them. I don't think that this is a sign of things to come, but the onset of changes to insurance and medical procedures from the affordable care act has also brought on uncertainty. This is an industry shifter, with many variables and twists that even the experts are not sure what will happen on 1/1/14. This is a very large dose of uncertainty, at least for the first month.
When you have uncertainty, mixed with declining revenues, it is a recipe for reduction of the workforce. Even more so, it is a freeze on new hires as people across an industry all say the same thing "Let's hold off on filling x position, until we have a clear picture of what's going on". It will be interesting to see if hiring picks up next month or the month after as uncertainty subsides and unmet needs become more important.
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