Unemployment in the US remains at low levels and continued to fall in January.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Washington Unemployment in the US fell slightly month-on-month in January. The unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down slightly from 3.5 percent in December, the Labor Department said on Friday. Experts had expected an increase to 3.6 percent.
This means that the rate is as low as it was last time in 1969. However, it cannot be ruled out that the value is also influenced by new estimates of the number of available workers.
The number of new hires also increased significantly. Around 517,000 new jobs were added in January, after around 223,000 in December.
Here, too, experts had expected a drop to around 185,000.
Average hourly wages rose 0.3 percent month-on-month in January, according to the US Department of Labor. The increase in the previous month was revised from 0.3 to 0.4 percent. Compared to the same month last year, hourly wages increased by 4.4 percent at the beginning of the year.
Fed remains under pressure
The situation on the labor market is therefore still tense – at least from the point of view of the central bankers. The Fed wants to curb inflation in the country and also cool down the overheated labor market with higher interest rates. In view of the falling inflation, however, it recently shifted down another gear and only increased the key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point – to the new range of 4.50 to 4.75 percent.
After a series of relatively large interest rate hikes, some normalcy returned to monetary policy. The Fed could now find itself forced to react more harshly and raise interest rates more sharply. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the first analysts are already expecting a further interest rate hike of 0.25 percent in March.
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