Macroeconomics Article Analysis

MACROECONOMICS
ARTICLE ANALYSIS
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ARTICLE SUMMARY
The given article discusses the job report for the month of February for USA. One of
the key highlights of this report was that the new jobs created amounted to only 20,000 which
is significantly lower than expectations and is seen as a blip in an otherwise strong job reports
being witnessed in the recent months. According to some economists, the low jobs creation is
quite disappointing but others intend to wait for future data points to provide any conclusion
on the economy (Cohen, 2019).
The jobs report also has some high points. One of these related to the y-o-y wage hike
of 3.4% which is the highest in a decade. Also, the unemployment rate witnessed a fall from
4% to 3.8%. Some analysts and economists attribute this strange job reports owing to the
government shutdown. However, there are some who highlight that it could be attributed to
shortage of skilled labor in the market. This points to potential concern in the market going
forward where there would be demand for incremental labor and limited supply which would
push labor costs (Cohen, 2019).
The government shutdown continued for majority of January and hence a number of
federal workers had to scout for part time opportunities. This trend was evident in January
which highlighted a spike in part time workers coupled with temporary unemployed.
However, with the shutdown over things have been normalized and there is high optimism
with regards to the economic. There has been a broad recovery of employment trends in
various regions and various businesses have sizable hiring plans for the remainder of the year
(Cohen, 2019).