Section:GDN 1N PaGe:44 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:02 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
(^44) Financial
Dominic Rushe
New York
US jobs growth slowed more than
expected in August, strengthen-
ing arguments that Donald Trump’s
trade wars are beginning to hit the US
economy.
The world’s largest economy cre-
ated 130,000 new jobs last month,
easily missing economists’ forecasts
of 158,000 new roles.
The US Department of Labor
announced that the unemployment
rate was unchanged at 3.7%, a near
50-year low, but the pace of hiring
slowed markedly, down from an aver-
age of 192,000 new jobs a month last
year to 143,000 so far this year.
The fi gures in the closely watched
non-farm payrolls report were partic-
ularly worrying for Trump.
Mining, an industry where the pres-
ident has promised to bring back jobs,
lost 5,000 positions over the month.
Manufacturing added just 3,000
jobs, and June and July’s fi gures were
revised down. Factory production has
declined for two consecutive quarters,
according to the Federal Reserve.
Trump dismissed suggestions the
report was anything less than stellar,
tweeting: “The Economy is great. The
only thing adding to ‘uncertainty’” is
the Fake News!”
August’s fi gures were also boosted
by the US government, which hired
25,000 temporary workers to con-
duct its 2020 national census. And
the report revised down its assess-
ments for job gains for June and July
by a total of 20,000.
After the news broke, Trump
resumed his attack on the Federal
Reserve’s chairman, Jerome Powell.
“Where did I fi nd this guy Jerome?
Oh well, you can’t win them all!” he
tweeted. Trump has blamed the US
central bank for slowing growth by
refusing to cut interest rates quickly.
The US jobs news comes as fears of
a global recession are escalating. The
European Central Bank has signalled
it is planning to cut interest rates and
announce a new stimulus package.
And the latest German industrial pro-
duction fi gures, published yesterday,
give “a convincing signal that Ger-
many is in recession”, according to
Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone econ-
omist at Pantheon Macroeconomic s.
Paul Ashworth, chief US econo-
mist at Capital Economics , said: “The
130,000 gain in non-farm payroll
employment in August was fl attered
by the hiring of 25,000 temporary
workers to help prepare for next
year’s census. More generally, there
has been a clear slowdown in trend
employment growth, particularly in
the private sector, with the six-month
average monthly gain below 150,000 .”
The report will do little to assuage
fears that the long-running trade dis-
pute between the US and China will
hit the global economy.
US jobs growth weaker than
expected amid trade war fears
Rob Davies
JD Wetherspoon ’s boss, Tim Martin,
has pledged to slash the price of lagers,
spirits, wine and cider if the UK leaves
the European Union, after shaving 20p
off a pint of ale to illustrate the Brexit
benefi ts he expects for drinkers.
Martin has been one of the most
vociferously pro-Brexit fi gures in the
world of business, insisting that leav-
ing the E U , even without a deal , will
mean cheaper prices for customers.
JD Wetherspoon cut the price of
Ruddles, an ale made by Greene King,
by an average of 20p across its 900
pubs. Ruddles is made in the UK and
would not be aff ected by any change to
the UK’s tariff arrangements with the
EU or the rest of the world. But Mar-
tin said a low-tariff regime would cut
overall costs for the company, which it
could then pass on to drinkers.
Leaving the EU would allow the gov-
ernment to slash tariff s on imported
goods, Martin said. “ There are no
import tariff s on Ruddles bitter but
pubs are synonymous with beer and I
strongly believe that if we get a reduc-
tion in tariff s on non-EU imports, the
most benefi cial thing for us to do is to
make our beer more competitive.
“Depending on what they [the
government] do, my fi rst move on 31
October would be to do something
for a lager, a cider, a glass of wine and
for a spirit, so there’s something for
everyone.”
However, trade bodies for the indus-
try have expressed concern about the
impact of a no-deal Brexit. Brigid Sim-
monds, chief executive of the British
Beer and Pub Association, said it was
essential that British brewers could
export to the EU without interrup-
tion. “For pubs, there are concerns
about access to talent in the EU and
the prospect of a points-based system
and salary cap, which would make it
even harder for pubs to fi nd the peo-
ple they need, ” she added.
Wetherspoon
pledges to sell
cheaper booze
as Brexit tonic
Diesel engines
are assembled
at a factory in
Indiana. The US
manufacturing
sector added
just 3,000 jobs
in August
PHOTOGRAPH:
LUKE SHARRETT/
BLOOMBERG/GETTY
130k
Number of new
jobs created
in the US
last month,
way below
economists’
forecasts of
158,000
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