US unemployment rate hits lowest in nearly 50 years

THE US unemployment rate fell in September to 3.7 per cent, the lowest since 1969.

The rate edged down from 3.9 per cent the month before as employers added 134,000 jobs – a figure that was probably depressed by the effects of Hurricane Florence in the South. Still, it extended an extraordinary 8½-year streak of monthly job growth, the longest on record. That run has added nearly 20 million people to the nation’s payrolls since the Great Recession, which cost nearly nine million jobs.

The low jobless rate reflects a healthy economy driven by strong consumer and business spending. In fact, hiring is so strong that employers are having trouble filling openings and some are being forced to offer higher pay.

In reporting September’s employment figures, the Government revised sharply upward its estimate of hiring for July and August. So far this year, monthly job growth has averaged 208,000, compared with 182,000 last year.

“The acceleration in job gains this year is extraordinary in an environment where firms are having great difficulty finding qualified candidates,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities. Most analysts blamed the slower pace of hiring last month on Florence, which struck North and South Carolina and closed thousands of businesses. The category that includes restaurants, hotels and casinos lost jobs for the first time since September 2017, when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, and retailers last month shed 20,000 jobs. Many jobs are likely to bounce back in the coming months.