By Isaac Cohen*
The most recent employment figures, released last Friday by the Labor Department, revealed vigorous performance in October, at 250,000 new jobs created, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 3.7 percent, the lowest in almost half a century. Even a slight increase of 0.2 percent in hourly wages generated a yearly gain of 3.1 percent, due to a very low figure in October 2017. The US economy has now reached 97 months of consecutive job creation, in nine years of sustained expansion.
Job creation was robust in almost all sectors, with 24,800 in transportation, 32,000 in manufacturing, healthcare with 35,600 and leisure and hospitality with 42,000, the highest figure. These solid employment figures, together with the annual growth rate expected to be around 3 percent, provide sufficient justification for another interest rate increase by the central bank, at its next meeting in December.
However, President Donald Trump does not agree. As quoted in The New York Times (11//03/18), President Trump welcomed the vigorous economic performance as “the greatest economy in the history of our country.” But, he added, “sometimes it’s not as exciting to talk about the economy.” Instead, the President used the term in Spanish “loco” (crazy), to criticize the central bank’s monetary policy posture.
*International analyst and consultant, former Director ECLAC Washington. Commentator on economic and financial issues for CNN en Español TV and radio, UNIVISION, TELEMUNDO and other media.
