|
egal Friday June 1, 8:53 am Eastern Time U.S. jobless rate falls in May (UPDATE: Adds more details from report, reaction) By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. job market held up better than expected in May, as the unemployment rate fell for the first time in 8 months, a report from the Labor Department showed on Friday. The jobless rate eased to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent in April -- defying economists` predictions that unemployment would tick higher. The last time the jobless rate fell was in September 2000. But although the percentage of people out of work declined, trends in nonfarm payrolls remained weak. The number of workers on U.S. payrolls outside the farm sector fell by 19,000 -- a modest drop that was close to the 17,000 contraction expected by economists in a Reuters survey. The report included heavy revisions to prior months` data and some methodology changes. On balance, the job picture in recent months looked stronger after the changes. Prices of U.S. Treasuries eased after the report as traders scaled back expectations of the extent of additional rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The dollar rose. ``Good news on all fronts. The payrolls number was not as bad as expected, the unemployment number was also better than expected. Another positive was that the April number was revised upward, in the sense that there were fewer job losses than originally anticipated,`` said Alex Beuzelin, foreign exchange analyst at Ruesch International in Washington. ``This report is going to support the idea that the worst of the downturn is over. It further supports the market`s guarded optimism that the economy is on the way back up.`` The Fed has hacked 2.5 percentage points off overnight interest rates since the beginning of this year, acting on five separate occasions in one of the most aggressive rate-reduction sprees in history to reinvigorate a flagging economy. Labor said April payrolls fell by 182,000 -- a revision from the previously reported decline of 223,000. March payrolls grew by 59,000, in contrast to the originally reported 53,000 decrease. Workers` hourly wages grew in May by 0.3 percent to $14.26 from a revised $14.22 in April. Year-to-date, growth in hourly earnings is running at 4.3 percent. gruss tb 2 |
|
| aus der Diskussion: | "Ventro, Umsätze enorm, unser kl. Zockertreff, Part 3" |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | thebull 2 (01.06.01 15:00:24) |
| Beitrag: | 59 von 1,000 (ID:3645520) |
| Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr © wallstreetONLINE | |