Latest unemployment rate drops, labor market remains strong
A month before voters go to the polls, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a Report Showing a strong labor market, wages are growing, unemployment is low and 254,000 jobs were added to the economy.
Eighty-one percent of registered voters say the economy is key to their vote for president this fall. according to Pew Research Center September report.
“We’re seeing job creation ahead of expectations, a slight decline in the unemployment rate, and substantial wage growth that continues to outpace inflation,” said Kitty Richards, senior strategic adviser at the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy think tank. “New inflation data last month, but wage growth is strong and has been above inflation for about 16 months, which are very good things.”
The unemployment rate was 4.1% in September, 4.2% in August and 4.3% in July. Rising unemployment earlier this year has some economists worried that the Fed’s decision not to lower the federal funds rate over the past few months was unreasonable. start damage the labor market. In September, the Federal Reserve decided to cut interest rates by half a percentage point, alleviating these concerns.
Economists say the Fed began aggressive interest rate hikes in March 2022 to combat inflation and stopped in mid-2023, but interest rates remained high and affected the economy, especially the housing market. explain. Inflation has cooled significantly since peaking in June 2022.
“If today’s jobs report shows further weakness in the labor market, I think many of us will be more concerned about the risks that higher interest rates pose to the labor market,” Richards said on Friday. “It’s good to see that those risks haven’t been eliminated … but the risks are there and we need to be really mindful of what that means if we start to see unemployment rising again.”
The report also showed continued job growth last month in the health care, government, social assistance and construction industries. Wage growth has been strong, rising 4% last year. Last month, the unemployment rate for adult men fell to 3.7%. Unemployment rates for women, blacks, Asians, whites, Hispanics and teenagers were little changed in September.
Friday’s jobs report showed the prime-age employment-to-population ratio, which measures the extent to which the economy provides jobs for people interested in working, remained at its highest level in 23 years.
“I think the labor market continues to be healthy and strong, and I’m pleased to see that the labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio remain high,” Richards said. “This is the kind of economy we want to see, one that drives wage growth for working people and continues some of the growth we’ve seen since the COVID recession.”
But she added that there was still room for expansion of these measures.
“We’ve seen that the economy can outperform a lot of people’s expectations after we had a really long period of low unemployment coming out of the COVID recession. I’m hopeful that we can continue to see that growth.
