Unemployment In The US Falls To A 49-Year Low

Diminishing fears of a slowdown in the US economy, official data released for the month of April showed that unemployment in the United States fell to a level not seen since 1969 supported by strong hiring trend in the vast services sector.

As the second quarter of the year 2019 began, employers scooped up workers in construction, health care, computer systems design, administrative support and other service industries, adding a total of 263,000 net new positions for the month, the data showed.

According to the closely-watch report from the country's Labour Department, worker pay continued to climb and jobless rate fell two tenths to 3.6 percent. However, the decline was also in part because the pool of workers shrank and fewer people were looking for jobs, excluding them out of the labour force.

As unemployment falls to half-century lows and workers become scarce, predictions are being made that companies would soon run out of people to hire, even as firms nationwide for months have complained they are struggling to fill open positions.

Inflation has been defying the usual logic that low unemployment would cause wages and prices to rise. Economists are now divided on the opinion as to whether inflation at the end of 2019 will finally pressurize the US Federal Reserve to bump up its lending rates.