For The First Time Since 2000, Unemployment In The US Falls Below 4 Per Cent

Unemployment rates in the United States fell down to 3.9 per cent this quarter from 4.1 per cent in the previous one, the first time in 18 years. According to a news release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, the total non-farm employment went up by 164,000 in April, bringing unemployment to one of the lowest levels post the Second World War.

The growth was seen heavily in the manufacturing, accounting and healthcare sectors, creating an average of 200,000 jobs a month, as opposed to last year’s mean of 182,000. The 91 month period from October 2010 has seen new jobs being added every month, marking the longest period of job growth on record.

The United States might finally be witnessing its recovery from the 2008-2009 economic recession that sent unemployment up by as much as 10 per cent in late 2009. Inflation in March had finally neared the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 per cent.

Till date, unemployment in the United States has been below 4 per cent only four times in a 70 year period – the Korean War in the early 1950s, the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and the information technology (IT) boom during the early 2000s.

President Donald Trump took to micro-blogging site Twitter to voice his reaction on the data

While economic theorists have said that when labour scarcity increases, wages go up too in order to retain and hire newer employees. However, wage growth has consistently been below expectations, with the hourly pay growing at 4 cents over the last month. This represents a growth of 2.6 per cent over the last year, significantly higher than the 2 per cent seen in the early stages of economic recovery.