Article source: ConstructConnect
President Trump will be of two minds when he sees the latest labor market numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). April’s Employment Situation report records another month of exceptional jobs growth, +263,000, and a notable decline in the unemployment rate to only 3.6%, which is as low as that metric has been in half a century. Furthermore, 3.6% was the seasonally adjusted (SA) rate. The not seasonally adjusted (NSA) jobless level was even tighter, at 3.3%.
But the good news with respect to jobs means that there is now even less likelihood that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, will pay heed to the President’s advice to lower interest rates. The needle on the central bank’s ‘yield meter’ has undoubtedly swung away from mildly dovish towards perhaps hawkish once again.
Through the first one-third of 2019, America’s monthly average (net) jobs creation has been +205,000, a quite solid level of increase. But placing it in perspective, it’s still -6.7% compared with January-to-April 2018’s comparable figure of +220,000.
