And the survey says ... 225K jobs created in January, well above the 164K expected while November and December were revised slightly higher by a total of 7K, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Unemployment Rate inched higher to 3.6% from 3.5%. As more people entered the workforce, the Labor Force Participation Rate rose to 63.4%, the highest since June 2013. The three-month job growth average was a solid 211K.
Within the data, it showed that the U6 number, a measure of total unemployed, ticked up to 6.9%, just above the all-time series low of 6.7% hit in December. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% month over month with a 3.1% year over year gain. There was one slightly negative data point as the report showed downward revisions of 514,000 for the year ended March 2019 for Non-Farm Payrolls, a bit higher than the 500K expected. Overall, a very strong report.
The low mortgage rate environment has made 11.3 million mortgages refi-eligible, the second-highest on record, reports Black Knight. The 11.3 million is made up of those borrowers paying interest rates that are 0.75% or higher than current rates who also have credit scores above 720 and enough equity in homes to get a loan. In the absence of credit scores and equity, there are 22 million mortgage holders with a loan rate of more than 0.75%, or in the money, also the second-highest on record.
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