Lowest Rate: US unemployment falls to 5.1%

WASHINGTON: The US unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in August, the lowest since early 2008, as the economy motored steadily ahead despite a global slowdown, the Labor Department said. A modest 173,000 new jobs were created last month, below what was forecast, and there were some signs that the US jobs machine was still only in second gear - wage growth remained slow, and labour force participation was still very low. But analysts said that August data is usually sharply higher in later revisions, and that the average level of the past three months, 221,000 jobs added, showed an economy still expanding healthily despite the brake that turmoil in China is putting on the rest of the world. “The weakness in August employment should not be over-interpreted,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at economic consultancy IHS. The jobless rate was at the lowest level since April 2008, when the country was plunging into recession.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2015.

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