Payrolls fell sharply in December, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that employment declined by 140,000 jobs amid the continuing economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, the accounting and bookkeeping sector added 2,300 jobs last month.
The unemployment rate remained at 6.7 percent despite the job cuts, which were the steepest since last April. The BLS revised upward the figures for both October and November, with the October figures going up by 44,000, from a gain of 610,000 jobs to a gain of 654,000. The change for November was revised upward by 91,000 jobs, from a gain of 245,000 jobs to a gain of 336,000. With those revisions, employment in October and November combined was 135,000 more than previously reported. Therefore, the loss of 140,000 jobs in December seems even more dramatic, although those figures are likely to be revised as well.
John Bovenzi is a co-founder of The Bovenzi Group, a boutique financial consulting firm. He served as deputy to the chairman and chief operating officer of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for 10 years.
Grayson Milbourne is the Security Intelligence Director at OpenText Cybersecurity, a division of OpenText. Grayson's nearly two decades of security intelligence expertise include malware analysis, data science, and security education. In his current role, Grayson is focused on efficacy development to ensure the company's security management products (which include the Webroot portfolio) are able to defend against the most cutting-edge threats.
Grayson is a longtime advocate for better 3rd party testing of security products and represents OpenText Cybersecurity at the Anti-Malware Testing and Standards organization, AMTSO. Through his efforts, AMTSO released testing standards that greatly improved testing quality when followed. Grayson is an avid participant in the security community and drives awareness of current threats by speaking at major events such as RSAC and Virus Bulletin. He is a frequent guest on local NBC affiliates and several cybersecurity podcasts. Beyond his passion for protecting people from cyberthreats, Grayson loves aviation and holds a private pilot license. His other passions include strategic boards games, skiing and playing golf. He lives in Louisville, Colorado with his wife, Danielle and their two cats, Theodore and Aiden.
Merrilee Matchett is the head of Global Customer Service & Operations and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group for MetLife. In this role, she directs a team of more than 10,000 associates responsible for managing the operations and servicing teams that support and enable the U.S. Group Benefits, Retirement & Income Solutions, MetLife Holdings, and Asia, EMEA and LATAM businesses across more than 40 global markets. She is also the Chairperson of MetLife Europe, and MetLife Europe Insurance.
Matchett joined MetLife in 2021 from Bank of America, where she was responsible for service and operations for global wealth management, private banking, and institutional and personal retirement businesses supporting more than $3 trillion in client balances. She was also the Chairperson of Financial Data Services, LLC, responsible for the end-to-end operational support of domestic and offshore mutual funds.
Matchett has been an advocate for diversity and women in financial services throughout her 30-year career and has been recognized with numerous market awards for outstanding service and operations performance. She is a member of the MetLife enterprise Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council, and represents MetLife on the board of INROADS, helping to provide career pathways for talented diverse youth across the United States.
She holds a B.A. in management with a law major from the University of Canberra, Australia. Additionally, she is FINRA accredited and licensed to trade and run a broker dealer.
In December, job losses in leisure and hospitality and in private education were partially offset by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, and construction. Average hourly earnings increased 23 cents to $29.81. The leisure and hospitality industry lost 498,000 jobs, with three-quarters of the declines in food services and drinking places, which lost 372,000 jobs. Since February, employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 3.9 million, or 23.2 percent.
Separately, CBIZ, a Top 100 Firm based in Cleveland, released its own monthly Small Business Employment Index, which showed a slight increase in small business hiring of 0.32 percent in December. Hiring declined a bit in the Central U.S. by 0.15 percent but rose in the Northeast by 1.18 percent, the Southeast by 1 percent and the West by 0.44 percent. There were increases for states that opened up from lockdowns on or before May 15 of 0.97 percent and states that opened up from lockdowns after May 15 of 0.23 percent.
While some industries tracked by CBIZ increased their hiring, growth did not occur across the board. Hiring increased in healthcare, financial services, real estate, nonprofits and retail trade, yet decreased in technology and life sciences, transportation, and accommodation and food services. The negative trend in accommodation and food services could be due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions.
“Obviously we are in a bit of a transitional period as the cases of coronavirus surge back up, and you’ve got significant population centers starting to lock down again,” said CBIZ executive vice president Philip Noftsinger. “In terms of the labor market, you may be bending that arc back toward either a declining labor market or a reduction. Ironically the CBIZ number went in the other direction. I don’t have a perfect answer for that, other than there are small businesses all over the country that are significant employment centers that are in larger areas that may be under lockdown, so perhaps that’s got a little bit to do with it.”
The incoming Biden administration will be inheriting multiple challenges with the economy, the pandemic and a sharply divided populace. “I’ll be interested to see as the transfer of power occurs what is our immediate response and how do we chart a different course to try to solve these problems for the country,” said Noftsinger.
Jobs for accounting professionals still seem to be in demand, despite some declines last year in the BLS data. “Professional services tend to be a bit more resilient if you’ve got a beta factor for the overall labor market,” said Noftsinger. “They have a lower beta factor.”
