MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Four year low US unemployment, 5%

United States companies created 146,000 jobs last June, below Wall Street expectations, but the unemployment index dropped to a four year low of 5%.

According to the US Labour Department report the increase was driven by jobs in professional and business services, healthcare, education and leisure, however the figure was less that the 195,000 anticipated by analysts, but overall unemployment better than the forecasted, 5,1%.

Labour Department actually increased employment figures for April and May to 292,000 and 104,000 representing an expansion of 44,000 jobs in the two months.

Unemployment decreased because of a modest one thousand increase in the economically active population looking for jobs.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said the figures indicate the "US economy is thriving", but not everybody agrees.

In effect non farm pay-rolls have contracted for the fourth consecutive month because of a jobs' cut in the automotive industry faced with lagging sales. Reports also indicate that since August 2004, a total of 96,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost.

June jobs creation was concentrated in the construction industry, 18,000; education and health services, 38,000 and leisure, 19,000.

Furthermore the number of weekly worked hours remained stable compared to May at an average of 33,7 hours, and in manufacturing 40,4 hours.

Normally employers increase the number of weekly worked hours before contracting new employees. Analysts interpret this could mean less jobs created in the coming quarters.