Unemployment in US falls to lowest rate since 1969

UK unemployment
The ONS has released its latest unemployment figures.

The US unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest rate since December 1969.

New figures from the Department of Labor revealed the jobless rate to fall to just 3.7 percent.

As well as the low unemployment rate, the figures also showed the creation of 134,000 jobs in September.

The new jobs were largely created in healthcare, construction and healthcare.

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Employment in healthcare rose by 26,000 in September. In 2018 so far, jobs in the sector have increased by 302,000.

Trump took to Twitter to celebrate the statistics, writing: “Just out: 3.7% Unemployment is the lowest number since 1969!”

Although unemployment rates were expected to reach 3.8 percent, the difference was due to the weaker-than-expected performance may be partly explained by the impact of Hurricane Florence.

“Hurricane Florence affected parts of the East Coast during the September reference periods for the establishment and household surveys,” said the Labor Department.

The average hourly earnings grew in line with forecasts, by 0.3 percent month-on-month and 2.8 percent year-on-year.

Earlier this week, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that it planned to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour – this is more than double the US minimum wage. 

Jeff Bezos, the tech giant’s founder, said: “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead. We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

The group has also said it would press for a change to the US minimum wage level.

Amazon spokesman Jay Carney said: “We will be working to gain Congressional support for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The current rate of $7.25 was set nearly a decade ago.”