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Multiple reports have indicated that the US economy is booming at the beginning of 2022 with a decreased unemployment rate. The US Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in December and the economy produced a smaller-than-expected increase of 199 thousand new jobs. It’s a popular misconception that a trade deficit is a sign of bad economic times in the United States. However, it is an indicator of great times in the US, relative to other countries. The benefits of a strong US economy are felt around the world, as other countries find US consumers eager to purchase their goods. Point to be noted that China was the largest net beneficiary of the US trade deficit, selling US consumers $28.4 billion more than it purchased.

The United States ran a significant trade deficit with other trade partners as well, including the European Union, at $19.4 billion; Mexico, at $11 billion; Germany, at $6.1 billion; and Canada, at $5.4 billion. The US runs a trade surplus with only a few partners. The largest is a $4.5 billion surplus with all of Central and South America. The only other surpluses of $1 billion or more are with Hong Kong, at $1.6 billion, and Brazil, at $1.0 billion. The monthly jobs report from the Department of Labor said that a similar story of an economy continues to present a strong recovery from the pandemic recession. The 199 thousand jobs figure for the month of December was lower than expected but contributed to an average of about 537 thousand jobs per month overall of 2021.

The unemployment rate fell from 6.4% at the start of the year to 3.9% in December. Not all of the decline in unemployment can be attributed to job growth. Millions of American workers dropped out of the labor force, largely as a result of the pandemic. It clearly indicates that the unemployment rate is low and there are still about 3.6 million fewer workers in the US than there were in the months prior to the beginning of the pandemic. A senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, Elise Gould said that they still have ways to go in terms of absorbing the labor force, and people who’ve left the labor force, as well as population growth, but it’s certainly a positive sign.