Chapter 5 Media Article

U.S. unemployment rate dips to 4.5 per cent even as job growth slows

The US unemployment rate took a dip down to 4.5 % in February, at the same time as losses of construction and factory jobs took place. Ironically, Wages have increased. The Labour Department released some latest news on employment stating that despite the slower job growth because of bad winter weather in parts of the country, the employment in the States is relatively in good shape. Economists made the assumption that hundreds of thousands of people left the workforce primarily because of the bad weather in february making job search difficult. On the other hand, employers in parts of America are adding more than 90,000 jobs to their payroll, even as the bad winter weather forced construction companies to cut 62,000 jobs. This is the highest job slash in construction since 91'. Factories, due to the declining housing and auto industries, have continued to cut jobs. Factory companies eliminated approximately 14,000 job positions. Although the US unemployment rate is going down in contrast with the many job cuts, the labour market is still in good shape according to economic analysts. Workers' hourly wage have increased to $17.16 ( a 0.4% increase from January). The US Federal Reserve has steadily been boosting interest rates for two years now to fight off inflation. The Commerce Department reported that US trade deficit narrowed to $59.1 billion in January, as American exports climbed to an all-time high. These economic reports came around the same time as President Bush is receiving 41% of public approval for his economic leadership, and receiving 57% disapproval of his economic leadership. Democrats in Congress are stressing the fact that Bush is not doing enough to close the economic inequality. Democrats are trying to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour. The minimum wage has not been changed at all for the last decade.

US unemployment rate has hit another low. However, there are indications that although unemployment is taking a dip, there's also job cuts in construction and factory happening in parts of the country, due to employers cutting jobs and the bad winter weather that made it quite difficult for hundreds of thousands of people to find jobs. The hourly wage has been increasing as well. This article is related to Chp.5 of seasonal unemployment & the employment/unemployment rate sections.

Looking at the surface, reading the headlines that the american unemployment rate is dropping slightly seems to have positive connotations around it. If the American economy is doing well, it would inevitably indirectly affect Canada's growth. On deeper emphasis while reading the article, I couldn't help but noticed that there are massive job cuts in certain industries; specifically construction and factories. Democrats pushing for increase in the federal minmum wage, unemployment rate dropping, the Iraqi war propelling fuel to the US economy (not that a war fueling the US economy is unprecedented), I would believe that the US is doing extremely well economically even if Social Security might go bankrupt in the near future for the baby boomers retirement...However, I realized that the article is reflected on seasonal unemployment. Hundreds of thousands of workers in construction and in factories are unemployed in parts of the country due to the jobs cuts, but the winter weather additionally was a problem for people to find jobs.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=3fae17bf-2d6a-4762-ac5e-fcaba68874ba&k=35882&p=1