US unemployment rate hits 50-year low

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Evidence of stronger hiring over the summer and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years were offset by signs of a slowdown in wage growth during September, according to the latest update on the health of the US labour market.

Non-farm payrolls rose by a net 136,000 last month from an upwardly revised 168,000 in August, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

That fell short of the median forecast for 145,000, according to a Refinitiv survey of economists, but the BLS also bumped up its employment figures for July by 7,000, to a gain of 166,000, suggesting more buoyant conditions over the summer.

The manufacturing sector lost 2,000 jobs overall in September, while the pace of hiring in the much-larger services sector slowed. The retail sector shed 11,000 jobs, concentrated primarily in clothing stores, which could reflect a continuing shift towards online shopping. Bars and restaurants, meanwhile, added 2,000 jobs. While hiring in that sector can be volatile, eating out can signal how confident consumers are about splurging.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 per cent, its lowest point since December 1969, and down from 3.7 per cent in August.

Growth in average earnings cooled in September to its slowest rate in more than a year to an annual pace of 2.9 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in August and undershooting forecasts for it to remain steady.


https://www.ft.com/content/b925e90a-e69c-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc

Jobs are bad. Very bad. This is terrible news.

Unfortunately for those MAGA and Maddog wankers, it's not all good news..

The underlying problem femains the same over there as it is down here, and over in Western Europe...

While overall "unemployment" figures are down, the numbers for both the long term unemployed and 'underemployed' workers are remaining too high --  as around 80% of all "new jobs" are only part-time or casual, often only on minimum wages..

While at the same time, wage growth has been relatively low, with average workers' take home incomes gradually slipping further and further behind ever-rising costs of living (i.e. food, water, energy, housing, healthcare..).

If Deputy Dawg really believes that 20 hours a week @ $12 an hour is good news, than that really shows us where his brains and his attitudes towards his fellow countrymen really are !

Obama started this brilliant upward turn in the economy. Trump manages to fook it up in a couple of years. Clinton actually balanced the budget by 2000. GWB created the October 2008 mini-depression.

Republicans create the mess; Democrats have to clean up the mess.