The Labor Department reported that the economy’s unemployment rate remained at about 4 percent despite employers hiring more workers. Last month, employers added about 272,000 workers to their payroll, which is higher than the monthly average over the past year.
In terms of job sectors, the healthcare field saw the most job additions with almost 70,000 new jobs. Government jobs and employment in the leisure and hospitality industry also saw significant growth, with 43,000 and around 30,000 new jobs, respectively.
Unemployment rates remained steady across demographics. Adult men and women had unemployment rates of nearly 4 percent and under 3 ½ percent, respectively. Around 12 percent of teenagers were still unemployed. In terms of ethnicity, the unemployment rate was about 3 ½ percent for white individuals, slightly over 6 percent for black individuals, just over 3 percent for Asian Americans, and around 5 percent for Hispanic Americans.
The strong trend in hiring by employers indicates that the economy is still robust. This could potentially lead the Federal Reserve to refrain from lowering interest rates from their current range of 5 ¼ to 5 ½ percent. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell mentioned that they won’t consider lowering rates until they observe a pattern of economic slowdown.
For further insights on the economy and the possibility of a recession, you can listen to Nick Eicher’s discussion with David Bahnsen on The World and Everything in It podcast. They delve into why a recession might not be imminent for the U.S. economy.