Jobs report points to millennials finding jobs: Pro
Fred Imbert
Friday, 6
Feb 2015 | 1:21 PM ET
Finally, millennials are flying the coop and contributing to the U.S.
economy.
Diane Swonk, Mesirow Financial's chief economist, told CNBC's "Squawk
on the Street" on Friday that January's jobs numbers show more millennials
are joining the workforce.
"If you see these numbers with what we saw in household formation at
the end of the year, we're starting to see millennials spread their wings and
fly," she said. "We saw household formation at the end of 2014 surge
at 1.7 million units after being below 400,000 for much of the recovery. …
Household formation is key to getting more spending in the U.S. economy."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday the economy created 257,000 jobs
in January, beating estimates by about 23,000. Unemployment was 0.1-percent
higher than expected at 5.7 percent, though.
"Although the quantity of jobs is high and the percent of quality isn't
necessarily high, there are more high-quality jobs in there as well,"
Swonk added, referring to post-college jobs within business and financial
services, among others.
She also said the U.S. labor participation rate increase indicates a boost
in 35-to-40-year-olds rejoining the workforce. "They did begin to throw
their hat in the ring, and what we're looking for is the tipping point of more
people rejoining the labor force," Swonk said. "Unfortunately, some
of the participation was really heavily concentrated in low-education categories."