AFP, Washington :
US job creation had another blockbuster month in January, blowing past the government shutdown, but that disruption helped to push the unemployment rate higher, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Employers added 304,000 net new positions last month – the highest in nearly a year and almost double what economists had predicted – while growth in worker pay held steady above inflation, according to the report.
The new numbers were welcome news for President Donald Trump, whose already-low public approval rating suffered in the wake of the longest government shutdown in US history.
“Those numbers were very impressive,” he said at the White House. “Other countries in other areas are not doing well and we are doing fantastically well.”
The construction, health care, hospitality and retail sectors added tens of thousands of workers, another sign that the robust labor market remains a fundamental source of strength with the US economy expected to slow in 2019.
However, the five-week government shutdown – the result of an impasse between the president and Congress over his plans for a wall on the US-Mexico border – was at least partly responsible for an uptick in the jobless rate to 4.0 percent, the highest in seven months.
And hiring in December was revised sharply downward to a still-strong 222,000, but far lower than the 312,000 positions initially reported.
While the partial shutdown of the federal government between December and January idled 800,000 government workers, the Labor Department still counted furloughed employees – who would receive back pay – as employed, leaving the monthly job creation numbers unaffected.
But the shutdown helped to drive the rise in the unemployment rate, since the separate survey of households used to determine joblessness counted furloughed workers as well as contractors as unemployed.
Meanwhile, the increase in unemployment also was the result of more workers coming off the sidelines to join the job hunt.
US job creation had another blockbuster month in January, blowing past the government shutdown, but that disruption helped to push the unemployment rate higher, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Employers added 304,000 net new positions last month – the highest in nearly a year and almost double what economists had predicted – while growth in worker pay held steady above inflation, according to the report.
The new numbers were welcome news for President Donald Trump, whose already-low public approval rating suffered in the wake of the longest government shutdown in US history.
“Those numbers were very impressive,” he said at the White House. “Other countries in other areas are not doing well and we are doing fantastically well.”
The construction, health care, hospitality and retail sectors added tens of thousands of workers, another sign that the robust labor market remains a fundamental source of strength with the US economy expected to slow in 2019.
However, the five-week government shutdown – the result of an impasse between the president and Congress over his plans for a wall on the US-Mexico border – was at least partly responsible for an uptick in the jobless rate to 4.0 percent, the highest in seven months.
And hiring in December was revised sharply downward to a still-strong 222,000, but far lower than the 312,000 positions initially reported.
While the partial shutdown of the federal government between December and January idled 800,000 government workers, the Labor Department still counted furloughed employees – who would receive back pay – as employed, leaving the monthly job creation numbers unaffected.
But the shutdown helped to drive the rise in the unemployment rate, since the separate survey of households used to determine joblessness counted furloughed workers as well as contractors as unemployed.
Meanwhile, the increase in unemployment also was the result of more workers coming off the sidelines to join the job hunt.
