US unemployment fell in January – Azteca News

Washington DC, EUA.-US employers added just 151,000 jobs in January, a sharp slowdown compared with recent months, but the country still has a strong labor market.

Employers raised wages, more people felt safe enough to look for work and the rate of unemployment fell 4.9%, its lowest level since 2008.

the report released Friday by the labor Department showed that the labor market remains strong, although the economy is in trouble in matters such as manufacturing and faces competition abroad.

the new figures provided new evidence for the Federal reserve, which weighs the possibility of raising interest rates again after uploading from a record low in December.

increased hiring in January, albeit modest, he continued at a robust employment growth, 280,000 jobs in November and 262,000 in December. Last month, companies cut positions in education, transportation and temporary jobs, but increased hiring in manufacturing, retail and food.

The markets received the report with heavy losses. The index Standard & amp; Poor’s 500 lost 31 points (1.6%) to 1,885 points by mid-afternoon. The figure is new jobs was below forecasts of economists, who expected a creation of 185,000 jobs, according to Factset.

Apart from the slowdown in the general contracting, economists reacted encouraged by most of the other themes of the report. “The positive growth of job , the drop in the unemployment rate to 4.9% and the increase in wages show that America is going in the right direction,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist for US Standard & amp; Poor’s.

The growth of the January labor market comes at a time of uncertainty for the national economy, which some analysts face a growing risk of recession in the next year or two. Global financial pressures and a volatile stock market have limited growth. Even so, American consumers have proved resilient.

The number of people working or looking for work increased last month, while the number of unemployed fell from 7.9 to 7.8 million, which made rate unemployment down from 5.0%.