Al Jazeera English - News - Surprise Fall In Us Jobless Rate

UPDATED ON:
FRIDAY, MAY 02, 2008
21:35 MECCA TIME, 18:35 GMT

NEWS AMERICAS





Surprise fall in US jobless rate

Bush said the figures showed the economy to be not
as "robust" as the US would like [AFP]

The US has reported a surprise fall in its unemployment rate and in the number of jobs cut by employers, the labour department has said.

National unemployment dipped slightly from 5.1 per cent in March to five per cent, while the number of jobs cut in April was 20,000, far fewer than the 80,000 that economists had feared.

George Bush, the US president, said on Friday that despite the figures being better than expected the economy was "not as robust as any of us would like it".

The figures came two days after the US central bank cut interest rates by a quarter-point from 2.25 per cent to two per cent, the lowest rate since December 2004.

On the same day, government figures showed that the US economy had grown by a modest 0.6 per cent in the first three months of 2008.

'Treading water'

This week the US government began making direct deposit rebates of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples as part of an economic stimulus programme approved by the US Congress earlier this year.

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The US economy has been battered in recent months by tight credit conditions, high oil prices, the weak dollar and the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis, in which people were offered mortgage deals they could not afford to repay.

Analysts said that despite the job numbers marking an improvement on previous months concerns remained over the US slipping into a recession.

"The economy is just barely treading water," Richard Yamarone, chief economist for Argus Research in New York, told the Reuters news agency.

"It's not imploding but it's not desirable either."

Source: Agencies

Related:
	US central bank cuts rates (30 Apr 2008)
	US home sales slump (24 Apr 2008)
	Bank of America profits plunge (21 Apr 2008)
	Citigroup to cut thousands of jobs (18 Apr 2008)
	IMF warns of US recession (09 Apr 2008)
	IMF: Sub-prime losses to hit $950bn (08 Apr 2008)

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