Unemployment Drops To 3.9 Percent, An 18-Year Low

U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, the lowest it’s been since the year 2000, the New York Times reported today.

Taken from the Labor Department’s April hiring and unemployment report, the data provides the latest snapshot of the American economy, the new NYT noted. The 3.9 percent unemployment rate is a clear sign that the job market has become even more competitive. Although Wall Street economists had expected an increase of about 193,000 jobs, 164,000 jobs were added in April. Apart from that, average earnings are up 2.6 percent over the past year – they rose by 4 cents an hour last month.

April is the 91st consecutive month of job gains which is, by far, the longest streak of increases ever recorded.

Catherine Barrera, chief economist of the online job site ZipRecruiter said the following.

“We’ve continued to add jobs routinely every month for so long, and the unemployment rate we have reached is amazing. This is the economy doing well.”

According to the NYT, although the economy is doing well, the impending trade war President Trump has been flirting with might jeopardize this growth.

As Politico noted two weeks ago, EU and Mexico have reached an agreement on a new free trade deal. This was done in response to Trump’s protectionism. The new accord is essentially an upgrade on a deal struck between Europe and Mexico in 2000, and it will branch out into other sectors such as agriculture, finance, and e-commerce.

Mexico delivered $340 billion worth of goods and services to the U.S. in 2017, but only $34.4 billion to the EU. The new free trade agreement will probably change that. A final text of the EU-Mexico deal can be expected by the end of 2018.

As the Inquisitr reported on April 18, the Federal Reserve’s most recent survey of U.S. businesses reports robust job growth and good overall economic growth, despite concerns over tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. It is not yet clear how these tariffs will impact American citizens, but they could at the very least cause some price instability.

The White House has offered little to no clarity about whether steel and aluminum tariffs will extend to allies like Mexico, Canada, and the EU, the NYT noted. Economists agree its too soon to tell how employers may change their staffing or expansion plans in response to this, but the Institute for Supply Management said that manufacturing activity grew in April at its slowest pace since last July.