MUNCIE, Ind. (WOWO): An area economist says the economic growth in the first quarter of 2018 may be the best seen since the end of the Great Repression.

Ball State economist Michael Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research, says the 3.9% national unemployment rate is the lowest since December 2000, and well beneath the full employment level.

“With 164,000 new jobs filled, total job creation was less robust than expected, but wages showed a 2.6% increase over the past 12 months, clearly outstripping inflation,” Hicks says. “Employment revisions for February and March showed employment levels higher than first thought, indicating a strong first quarter, maybe the strongest since the end of the Great Recession.”