Labor figures continue to record highs: the overall employment rate is 63.4%, the highest in seven years

• Production line worker at Ford plant // Photo: AFP

Trump's trade policy bears fruit: For the first time in six years, the U.S. trade deficit has shrunk.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce, the trade deficit rate for 2019 has decreased by 1.3% from 2018 and is set at $ 616.8 billion. The trade deficit with China, with which a preliminary trade agreement was recently signed, has plunged 17.6% over the past year to $ 345 billion. The Chinese have pledged to buy US $ 200 billion worth of goods in the next two years. Currently, US $ 360 billion worth of Chinese imports are being imposed on Chinese imports, and Trump is threatening to impose additional $ 160 billion on goods if the second phase of the agreement is not signed.

More on:

• The United States and China will sign the trade agreement

• “Stable U.S. economy; Chinese growth slump "

• Record of jobs for the month: US economy soars

At the same time, the trade deficit against Mexico and the EU has increased to $ 280 billion in aggregate. The US-Mexico and Canada joint trade agreement was recently signed to reduce the deficit, while at the same time the president opened a front against Europeans, including threats of tariffs. The US also enjoys a $ 249 billion surplus in the services sector, including tourism and banking - a slight decline compared to 2018.

Meanwhile, US labor figures continue to record highs. The overall US employment rate is 63.4%, the highest in seven years. The number of new employees in the first month of 2020 amounted to 225,000, which is about 40% of the forecast of 158,000. Among the main working age groups (54-25), the employment rate was 83.1% last January - the highest since September 2008, before the great economic crisis that led to a recession. The peak, 84.6%, was recorded 20 years ago, in 1999.

"Desperate Workers" find jobs

75% of employees who have been recruited for work in recent months have until recently been "discouraged from work" - that is, those who did not look for work at all and were therefore not included in the number of unemployed workers. According to the Wall Street Journal, this is unseen figures in the U.S. in three decades. In Trump's three years as president, 4.8 million civilians who were already "discouraged" and out of office joined the labor market. By comparison, in the eight years of Obama's tenure, only 5 million jobs have been added to the economy.

The official unemployment rate is 3.6%, but the informal rate, which also weighs "job despair" and those employed in half jobs, is 6.9%. This is a slight 2 basis point increase compared to December 2019 - then the lowest figure for the unofficial unemployment rate, 6.7%, has been recorded since the measurements began.

The encouraging data shows that economic growth is well permeated with the weaker sections of the population.

They also explain why the average wage increase - 3.1% in the past year - does not catch up with the growth in jobs.