US Unemployment Rate at FourYear Low

 

 

A sharp but short-lived jump in the number of people claiming benefits in states struck by storm Sandy has been evident in weekly jobs claims data

The US added 146,000 jobs in November, official data shows, as the economy seemingly shrugged off storm Sandy. The unexpectedly strong performance brought the unemployment rate down to a four-year low of 7.7% of the workforce.

The jobs figure was well above most analysts' expectations and continued a recent surge that began in July. Weekly benefits data registered a sharp but short-lived jump in the number claiming unemployment benefits in the states ravaged by the storm last month.

"Our analysis leads us to conclude that Hurricane Sandy did not substantively impact the national employment and unemployment estimates for November," said John Galvin, acting commissioner at the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), which produced the jobs report. The jobs survey data for the individual states - which can be used by analysts to determine what effect, if any, the storm had - will not be released until 21 December.

 

Stock markets gave the figures a cautiously positive response, with both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes rising 0.3% at the start of trading on Wall Street. European shares, which had been down for the day following a cut in the Bundesbank's growth forecast for Germany, jumped about 0.5% on the news.

The US Federal Reserve is due to meet next week to decide whether to expand the central bank's policy of buying up debt from the markets in order to stimulate the recovery.

US government bonds fell slightly in value following the data release, suggesting that markets have lowered the expectations for further intervention by the Fed in light of the strong jobs growth figure.