Unemployment Rate Drops To 9-Year Low Under Obama Administration

“Trump is inheriting a strong economy, an economy that is near full employment and clicking on nearly every cylinder”. The average work week for all workers was unchanged at 34.4 hours.

Retailers cut 8,300 jobs, an unexpected loss as the Christmas shopping season gets underway.

The big disappointment in the jobs report was wage growth. Wage growth probably remained at a seven-year high. “Wages can be volatile month to month”. If Trump decides to go with the latter, surely we can expect something along the lines of a one A.M. tweet declaring, “I’m checking birth certificates of every employee at our disaster of a labor dept!”

Traders have now priced in a 90.4 percent chance of a hike this month, according to Thomson Reuters data.

A US factory worker presses a sheet of metal.

If the weak productivity growth is explained by the availability of low cost labor, which can be profitable to hire for low productivity jobs, then a tightening labor market would be expected to lead to more rapid productivity growth as workers switch from low paying, low productivity growth, to higher paying, higher productivity jobs. He and his advisers have discussed investments in infrastructure, which could provide a short-term economic boost, and he has promised to lower taxes and reduce regulation, which could have effects over the longer term. “The pockets of weakness will be smaller and fewer and farther”.

The drop in unemployment was driven by adult men, while the rates for women and teenagers didn’t show much or any change.

While the headline rate came in as expected, the unemployment rate was the surprise development. Wages have risen by 2.5 percent over the a year ago. It has failed to reach the level it was at before the recession. He also predicted “at least two more” interest rate increases next year. Economists will watch the participation rate, which indicates the share of working-age people who are employed or looking for work.

The jobless rate fell an unusually large three-tenths to a surprising 4.6 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, the figure was up a solid 2.5 percent for the 12 months ended November 30, above the rate of inflation.

Americans bought homes in October at the fastest pace in almost a decade and their willingness to make such a major purchase reflects growing optimism.

Solid job growth helped push the unemployment rate down to 4.6 percent.

United States stocks were trading largely higher, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

“Today’s November jobs report can be summed up as: not bad, but not great”, said Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist. That trend is driven by forces – globalization, automation – that Trump is unlikely to be able to reverse.

“Based on everything we can possibly know right now, there’s no chance that the Fed won’t raise rates” at the December meeting, Hamrick told International Business Times in a phone interview, barring “any Brexit- or Donald Trump-type event” that could potentially send market expectations off the rails.

The next release of unemployment rates from the Department is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16 when the November unemployment rates will be released.

Still, the most recent jobs report is encouraging, and positive overall. Job gains have averaged 180,000 a month this year – more than enough to lower the unemployment rate over time.