The December 2014 Payroll Jobs Report

January 9. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that a quarter of a million new jobs were created in December.

The reported new jobs are concentrated in construction (48,000), professional and business services (52,000), health care and social assistance (43,700), and waitresses and bartenders (43,600).

The construction jobs are in heavy and civil engineering construction and specialty trade contractors.

The personal and business services jobs are primarily administrative and waste services, about half of which are temporary help services.

Ambulatory health care and nursing and residential care account for half of the health care and social assistance jobs.

There are 43,600 new jobs in food services and drinking places.

Durable goods manufacturing provided 13,000 jobs. The largest component is fabricated metal products (4,600 jobs). Manufacturing of computer and electronic products provided 400 jobs.

In December the economy hired 500 more people in legal services, lost 14,100 jobs in accounting and bookkeeping, created 5,100 jobs in architectural and engineering services, 9,000 jobs in computer systems design and related services, and hired 3,800 managers.

December is the Christmas shopping season. According to the payroll jobs report, retail department stores only created 600 jobs in December. Furniture and home furnishings stores lost 3,600 jobs; electronics and appliance stores lost 700 jobs; clothing and clothing accessories stores lost 8,900 jobs, and health and personal care stores lost 4,900 jobs.

According to the current issue of Money magazine, the average deductible for single health care coverage has risen from $584 in 2006 to $1,217 in 2014.

I do not believe that the economy created 252,000 jobs in December. Nevertheless, the location of the jobs is instructive. The New Economy’s superior jobs that Globalism was supposed to deliver to the US work force were a fiction. Middle-class American manufacturing and tradable professional skills jobs were sent offshore. The ladders of upward mobility were taken down, and the majority of the population faces a dismal economic outlook.

This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts’ website Institute For Political Economy. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.