In February, 2019, the growth of salaries in the United States reached a record year for 10

The rate of employment in the United States in February, 2019, fell to its lowest level in nearly a year and a half.

Фото: Depositphotos

Employers added only 20 000 jobs, compared with 311 000 in January. But despite the extremely weak growth in February, the growth in the number of jobs over the past three months was still high and averaged 186 000 per month, writes ABC News.

And average hourly wages rose 3,4% from the same period a year earlier—the sharpest increase in a decade. The unemployment rate also fell to 3,8% (from 4% in January), reaching its lowest level in five decades.

Overall, the government's monthly employment report, published by 8 March, points to a sustainable labor market and economy.

“The US labor market is still in good shape. The slower job growth could be attributed to the contraction following a huge average gain that topped 250 in the previous four months. Job growth should rebound in March and through the end of this year,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.

The decline in job growth in the last month may be due to the fact that US economic growth is likely to slow down due to a weaker global economy and a trade war between the United States and China.

But most economists believe that it is not worth dramatizing the decline in the increase in the number of jobs in February. According to them, monthly employment data may be unstable. During the nearly ten-year recovery period after the Great Recession, job growth for the month sometimes declined to 15 000 (in May 2016 of the year) and to 18 000 (in September of 2017 of the year), but then recovered again to average indicators in the following months.

And the February increase in average wages indicates that enterprises are increasing their efforts to attract and retain workers.

Julia Pollack, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, says many companies are increasingly looking for workers. She said the number of job postings on their website increased by 42% last year compared to 2017. And positions that offer flexible work hours grew by 110%—a trend that could bring more women into the workforce who can't work in an office because of family responsibilities.

Nevertheless, on a national scale in February in all sectors there was a decrease in the number of jobs. In construction, there was a reduction in 31 000 jobs, the largest in five years, which is probably due to cold weather. Production has added 4000 to thousands of jobs, the smallest addition in the past year and a half. Retailers cut 6 100 jobs, while jobs in the category of services, including restaurants and hotels, remained unchanged.

But the unemployment rate declined, despite the cool pace of hiring. African American unemployment, which reached a record low in 2018% in May, rose to 5,9% in February, which is its highest figure in a year. And Latin American unemployment fell to a record low in 7%.

The overall unemployment rate declined in part because thousands of federal workers were temporarily counted as unemployed in January 2019 during the partial closure of the government. They returned to work and were no longer considered unemployed in February.

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