The American job market is the strongest it’s been in a decade—and arguably the strongest since 2000, The New York Times reports. Employers added 228,000 jobs last month, according to new Labor Department figures released today.
The United States has now added jobs for 86 consecutive months—a downward blip in September was later revised to show a small gain—and the unemployment rate is lower than it ever got during the last boom, which ended when the housing bubble burst. Even wage growth, long the weak spot in an otherwise strong recovery, is showing signs of picking up.
“It’s a really, really strong economy,” says Tom Gimbel, chief executive of LaSalle Network, a staffing firm in Chicago. “Companies really want to take advantage of the economy, so they want to hire and get while the getting’s good.”
The latest batch of strong numbers come as congressional Republicans are on the verge of passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut plan, which President Donald Trump could sign into law this month.
Economists expect the bill to provide at least a modest lift to the economy—but they aren’t sure that’s a good idea. With unemployment so low and the economy fundamentally healthy, a tax cut could lead the economy to overheat, pushing up inflation and forcing policymakers at the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates faster than planned.
“It’s a very poorly timed fiscal stimulus,” says Joseph Song, a Bank of America economist. “It kind of raises the risk of a boom-bust cycle.”
