Unemployment declines: US records strong job creation in July

WASHINGTON: The US saw robust job creation again in July, with unemployment falling back to a 16-year low, restoring the economy to the employment level seen before the 2008 crisis. The healthy jobs report on Friday was another dose of welcome news for an embattled White House facing a stalled policy agenda and historically low public approval ratings. The world’s largest economy added 209,000 net new positions for the month, well above analyst forecasts, although below the 231,000 increase in June, the Labour Department reported. However, average monthly job creation so far in 2017 is 185,000, slightly below the average recorded in 2016 and well below 2015 and 2014. Hourly wages continued to make steady, if slow, progress, with a 0.3% increase over June, 2.5% higher than July 2016, the same pace as the month before. The rosy jobs report could ease some of the confusion among Federal Reserve policy-makers, but have been left perplexed by flagging inflation amid falling unemployment.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2017.

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