Jobs in 2018…

The December Jobs Report is out. December 2017 showed a gain of 148,000 jobs, bringing the average over three months to 204,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent, the lowest level since 2000. This gain in job numbers marks the 87th consecutive month of job growth, which is an unprecedented stretch in recent US history. An important thing to note apart from rising job numbers in the job report is the rise in wages. For much of the year, the wages have increased by around 2.4 percent. According to many economists, this is a rate lower than what was expected. With earnings raise in December of 9 cents, equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 2.5 percent, economists will continue to dig deeper as to how the companies seeming to have an ever-increasing demand for American workers, dole out on paltry raises.

2017 has been one of the strongest years for the US economy after the 2008 housing crisis, and it continues to grow further at an ideal pace. In terms of numbers, the growth rate for 2018 is forecasted to be around 2.5%, falling into the ideal range of 2–3%, as per the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in December. There isn’t much inflation or deflation, and the Unemployment rate is currently on the decline — leading to an ideal state of the economy, also known as the “Goldilocks” economy.

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