NEW YORK — The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 4.5%, the lowest level since May 2007.
However, hiring slowed substantially in March, President Trump’s second full month in office. America only added 98,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.
It’s a disappointment, given the U.S. added 219,000 jobs in February and averaged 187,000 new jobs a month last year. But economists are already calling it a one month “blip” that may be due to winter weather.
Overall, hiring has been strong in the past year and most fully expect it will pick up again. Many other countries would love to have 4.5% unemployment. It’s a very low level that shows the U.S. economy has mostly recovered to pre-crisis levels.
The low U.S. unemployment rate is at a level that most economists consider full employment — a state when businesses find it hard to hire people.
“No one should be obsessed with a single jobs report,” says Megan Greene, chief economist at Manulife Mutual Funds. “The headline figure for this month was bad, but if you look at the three-month average, it’s still around 180,000 jobs a month.”
A bright spot is that workers are starting to get substantial raises as businesses want to keep their best workers happy. Wages were 2.7% higher in March compared to a year ago. For much of the recovery, wages were only growing about 2%.
But Greene says most of the wage gains are going to supervisors.
“The bosses are getting paid more, while the worker bees aren’t,” she says.
