Photo Yahoo
By Isaac Cohen*
Newsroom MetroDMVNoticias-Local News
A week before today’s election, in the middle of the intense electoral debate, the US economy sent a positive economic growth signal and a weak job creation figure.
To start positively, last Wednesday, the Commerce Department announced that US economic growth increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent during this year’s third quarter, between July and September, slightly less than 3 percent registered during the second quarter, from June to August. The main contributors to the vigorous expansion were consumer spending, which accounts for more than two thirds of economic activity, followed by strong exports and increased defense spending.
To moderate optimism, job creation in October decreased significantly. Last Friday, the Labor Department informed that only 12,000 new jobs were created in October and that it had revised downward by 112,000 jobs, the figures of both August and September. The meager creation of new jobs in October contrasted with a monthly average of 148,000 between July and September, or the monthly average of 267,000 in this year’s first quarter.
The evidence of a slowdown in the job market, signaled by the weak employment figure in October, supports the expected reduction of 0.25 percent in interest rates by the next meeting of the central bank’s Open Market Committee. Deliberately scheduled to start tomorrow after the election in Washington, the meeting will conclude the next day.
*International analyst and consultant, former Director ECLAC Washington. Commentator on economic and financial issues for CNN en Español TV and radio, UNIVISION, TELEMUNDO and other media.
