AFP, Washington :
The US jobless rate tumbled in September to its lowest level since December 1969, even as job creation slowed, likely due in part to Hurricane Florence, the government reported Friday.
A month ahead of hard-fought congressional elections, the result was sure to delight US President Donald Trump, who has eagerly taken credit for America’s extended run of economic expansion even as his Republican party faces a possible rebuke from disenchanted voters. Unemployment fell to a 48-year-low of 3.7 percent last month from 3.9 percent, an unusually large drop, according to the Labor Department’s closely-watched monthly jobs report.
But despite the lower jobless rate, non-farm employers added just 134,000 net new positions, far weaker than analysts expected. Hurricane Florence, the storm that made landfall along the mid-Atlantic US coast on September 14, caused widespread disruption for homes and employers but it was not possible to determine the extent to which this might have depressed the September jobs numbers, officials said. Economists had expected job creation to slow but only to 184,000, even with the hurricane effect, from the 270,000 net new positions created in August. Job gains in July and August were revised up a combined 87,000 from the original reports.
The US jobless rate tumbled in September to its lowest level since December 1969, even as job creation slowed, likely due in part to Hurricane Florence, the government reported Friday.
A month ahead of hard-fought congressional elections, the result was sure to delight US President Donald Trump, who has eagerly taken credit for America’s extended run of economic expansion even as his Republican party faces a possible rebuke from disenchanted voters. Unemployment fell to a 48-year-low of 3.7 percent last month from 3.9 percent, an unusually large drop, according to the Labor Department’s closely-watched monthly jobs report.
But despite the lower jobless rate, non-farm employers added just 134,000 net new positions, far weaker than analysts expected. Hurricane Florence, the storm that made landfall along the mid-Atlantic US coast on September 14, caused widespread disruption for homes and employers but it was not possible to determine the extent to which this might have depressed the September jobs numbers, officials said. Economists had expected job creation to slow but only to 184,000, even with the hurricane effect, from the 270,000 net new positions created in August. Job gains in July and August were revised up a combined 87,000 from the original reports.
