The unemployment rate in the US fell in January a tenth of a point to 4.9 percent, its lowest level since February 2008, according to Labor Department data released yesterday.
That modest drop It occurred even though job creation was significantly reduced in January as part of a slowing of the economy.
last month 151,000 new jobs were created, against 262,000 in December.
Although the job creation data January fell below the expectations of analysts, who had expected about 180,000 new jobs, continuing the strong trend of reducing unemployment.
the unemployment rate of 4.9 percent represents about 7.8 million unemployed.
the good performance of the labor market is beginning to put upward pressure on wages, closely watched against signs of inflationary pressures, they improved slightly . The average time increased 0.5 percent compared to December, to reach $ 25.39 in January. Accumulated in recent months, wages have increased by 2.5 percent.
A BREAKDOWN BY SECTOR
Job creation remained in the retail trade (58,000), in the sector of cafes and restaurants (47,000) and health services (37,000). Also, the creation of new jobs increased for the first time in a year in the manufacturing sector (29,000).
But the service sector companies created fewer jobs (9,000 against 60,000 in December ), while transport 20,000 positions were lost.
the mining sector, affected by low prices, lost 7,000 jobs, like the previous month. Meanwhile, participation in the workforce was unchanged at 62.7 percent.
The January figure comes after the United States closed 2015 at its second best year since the late nineties , creating 2.65 million new jobs and the unemployment rate is kept unchanged at 5 percent.
OBAMA REJOICE
President Barack Obama welcomed data to journalists and in an election year took the opportunity to criticize the Republican opposition.
“it’s the first time in eight years that unemployment is below the threshold of 5 percent,” Obama said, said that in recent years, wages grew at a rate not seen since 2009.
“in the past six years, our company added 14 million new jobs,” the president said at a conference in which It celebrated 71 months of job growth in the private sector.
the White House has long maintained that Obama does not get all the credit he deserves for having brought to the United States from the Great Depression of 2008/09 .
Obama said history showed that Republican opposition was wrong to ask for fiscal austerity during the crisis and criticized him for injecting stimulus to boost the economy.
“If we applied some policies advocated by the Republicans in the past, four, five, six years, probably would have been worse, “he said.
Obama also said that we must be attentive to international turbulence, especially those coming from China . “The world economy suffers weaknesses. China is making a transition. That makes getting headwinds and creates more difficulties, “he said.
United States now has the most solid and stable world economy.”
Barack Obama, President of the United States.
FED PRESSED
the consolidation of the improvement in the labor market in the US adds pressure to the Federal reserve (Fed), which began in December monetary tightening in January but warned of a slowdown in the economy.
the Fed has a dual mandate to promote full employment and price stability. And it is in this second stage that the central bank remains concerned about low inflation, which closed 2015 at just 0.7 percent, still far from the target of 2 percent over the medium term.
President Fed, Janet Yellen, is shown confident that the creation of jobs, and near full employment, force employers to raise wages, which would help raise the inflation outlook.
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