WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Strong news on the jobs front. Better than expected news for both employment and wages in the past month.
For Crystal Thackoor it's a positive sign. She's made searching for employment a full-time job.
"I've been searching for a job for about six months," she said.
Thackoor said she's looking to be a dispatcher for the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office or the City of Riviera Beach, but is concerned the process may be lengthy.
"It could be six months; it could be four months for that, but hopefully I'll get a call back," she said.
According to the latest jobs report for the month of November, 263,000 jobs were added nationally, wages continued to climb and the unemployment rate is holding steady at 3.7%.
"The job market is still remarkably robust," Mark Hamrick, Bankrate economic analyst, said. "A lot of people look at this and say that's an affirmation of job security and that's absolutely true."
He said the other side of this situation is that we're living in a time where it also involves inflation. Hamrick is keeping a close watch on the Federal Reserve.
"So, what the federal reserve is doing is hoping to take some of the jet fuel that it added to the economy in the early, difficult days of the pandemic and actually have things simmer down a bit," he said.
Locally things are looking good. According to CareerSource Palm Beach County, the county's unemployment rate has stayed at or below 3% for nine consecutive months.
For more than a year, the leisure/hospitality industry has led the county in job growth.
Thackoor said the news gives her a bit of confidence for her future.
"Things don't always stay bad but just be prepared that it may be a wait," she said.
