In the US, the unemployment rate is at its lowest for eight years – Les Echos

halftone balance for US employment in January: while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in eight years, job creation, for their part, have greatly fell in January

the US economy created 151,000 new jobs last month, against 262,000 in December (revised down 30,000). Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which is the subject of a separate survey, fell by a tenth of a point to 4.9%, its lowest level since February 2008.

for comparison, analysts expected 188,000 new jobs and a stable unemployment rate to 5%.

Good figures for the manufacturing sector

job creation remained strong in the retail trade (58,000), cafes and restaurants (47,000) and health services (37,000). They rebounded for the first time in a year in manufacturing (29,000), which is good news. But business services generated fewer jobs (9,000 against 60,000 in December), while the transport sector has destroyed 20,000 jobs. The mining sector, which still suffers from low energy prices, still rake (7000 as in the previous month).

7.8 million unemployed US

Taking advantage of new entrants to the labor market, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9%, representing 7.8 million unemployed. The Ministry of Labour has conducted the annual review of its statistical bases, the number of new entrants to the job market was not available. The participation rate in the labor market increased very slightly to 62.7% instead of 62.6% in December.

Given the population growth, experts believe usually it only takes one hundred thousand jobs created each month to contain or be slightly lower the unemployment rate. Over the past three months, the US economy has generated an average of 231,000 monthly jobs.

Yet many part-time employees

The part-time employees for lack of better remain numerous in January to 6,000,000, although they managed to drop by 796,000 year over year.

a positive note , wages have increased. Closely watched by the Federal Reserve (Fed) who would like to see inflation to rise towards a target of 2%, the average hourly wage earned 12 cents to 25.39 dollars.

at the end of the year, US growth has clearly slowed down, falling to just 0.7% for the last quarter of 2015 instead of 2% in Q3.

Source AFP