Two recently released reports on Thursday paint an image of a tightening labor market approaching almost full employment at the state and national levels.
According to the latest figures gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which was released by the state Department of Workforce Development, Wisconsin has added more jobs in the past 12 months than it did in twelve years.
The unemployment rate of the state last month dropped to 4.5 percent which is below the national average by 0.5 percent.
Meanwhile, those who are filing applications for unemployment benefits in the country decreased last week, similar to the low figures of over 42 years ago. All these numbers indicate a strengthening of the economy, although some analysts are concerned about the quality of the jobs that were created.
New filings for jobless benefits fell 13,000 last week, with a seasonally adjusted 253,000, the lowest since the Watergate scandal that consumed Richard Nixon in 1973.
"Jobless claims are running really low and all other labor market data are telling us that the economy is creating a lot of jobs," said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight, to Bloomberg. "This is further confirmation that the labor market is strong," he added.
The encouraging economic outlook is also seen in the year-over-year statistics. Claims dropped over 12 percent last week against the year-earlier level (prior to seasonal adjustment).
These figures strongly suggest that economic growth is about to take place for the foreseeable future.
The most positive job news about the economic condition is coming from the labor sector with both job participation rate and job creation picking up in recent months, according to Abdur Chowdhury of Marquette University.
He said that even the rise of the national jobless rate in March was "for the right reason" since the hike was due to the surge of 400,000 workers joining the labor market that month.
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