Tag: unemployment

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Obama Triggers Trump Over Economic Results

Former President Barack Obama took to Twitter on Monday to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The $800 billion stimulus package paved “the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history.” But the tweet apparently triggered Donald Trump, who constantly takes credit for the “greatest economy in the history of our country.” Trump frequently mentions the economy as he campaigns in his bid for reelection. A few facts from CNN: The average monthly job growth has declined from 224,000 during Obama’s last three years to 182,000 during Trump’s first three. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6% last month from 4.7% in January 2017 as Trump took office. Yet that merely continued the trend of the last six years of Obama’s term. Since Trump assumed the presidency in January 2017, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen by 47%, as of about 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday. During Obama’s second term, the Dow rose 44%.

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US Economy Adds 263,000 Jobs In April

The Labor Department reports that 263,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in April, making for a record 103 straight months of positive job growth.

With those jobs factored in, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the lowest since 1969.

The official unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for more than a year.

Additionally, average hourly earnings rose 3.2 percent in the past year.

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February Jobs Report Much Weaker Than Expected

The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures for February on Friday morning showing only 20,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month.

Analysts had expected a gain of about 175,000.

It was the 101st straight month of job gains, but the weakest report since September 2017.

The unemployment rate adjusted downward to 3.8 percent from 4 percent in January.

The labor force participation rate held at 63.2 percent in February and has changed little over the year.

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Unemployment Rate Drops To 3.9%

The unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% for April according to reports from the Labor Department.

According to the New York Times, 164,000 jobs were added last month. Employment experts were expecting an increase of about 193,000.

This marks the lowest jobs rate since 2000. Economists say the numbers signal the job market becoming more competitive over the past months.

While more people may be working, one issue that gives pause is the slow increase in wages for middle class Americans.

Pay increased by 2.6 percent over the past year, not much faster than inflation. That’s considerably more moderated than economists expect in a job market this tight.

The last time the job market looked like this, in the late 90s and early 2000s, wages for middle class workers rose at an annual rate of around 4 percent.

Interestingly, Donald Trump boasted that he would be THE “jobs president” since he allegedly knows how to create jobs.

And yet, it appears he isn’t generating the same kind of numbers his predecessor did…

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Unemployment Remains At 4.1% For Sixth Month In A Row

The March jobs report is out and, according to experts, its something of a disappointment.

The U.S. economy added just 103,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street economists expected 185,000, according to Bloomberg.

For the 6th straight month the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

Average earnings per hour are up 2.7% compared to this time last year.

The January and February reports were revised down which resulted in 50,000 less new jobs than previously reported.

All of that said, the U.S. economy is showing itself to be in solid shape, as it has been now for 8 years.

This isn’t something new, something that Donald Trump has created. With 90 straight months now of positive growth, it’s notable that the first 76 of those months were heavy-lifting under the Obama administration coming out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The good news is Trump’s policies haven’t had a negative effect as we continue on the same trajectory of the previous 7 years before him.

The bad news is wage growth is not being reflected in a way that most economists expect.

Republicans will always tell you jobs mean more money. And certainly having a job means having money.

But considering the healthy economic environment we’re seeing, employers are not passing that on to employees in the form of higher wages.

In light of the current employment market, an increase of only 2.7% in hourly wages is on the measly side.

We’ll see if the possible trade war with China has an impact on the U.S. jobs market in the next 6-8 months.

(source)

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Trump Tries To Take Full Credit For “Lowest” Unemployment Since 1973

Donald Trump recently tweeted that unemployment claims are “at the lowest level since 1973.”

Now, at first read you would think (and the Trumpster would WANT you to think) that he deserves the credit for all that.

BUT – here are the facts.

Thanks to the 8 years of fiscal policies under George W. Bush, the United States fell into the worst financial crater since the Great Depression.

During Bush’s last year in office the U.S. economy lost 5 million jobs. And that slide continued into Obama’s first year in office as it takes several months for a new administration’s policies to take effect.

Unemployment peaked at 10% during the Great Recession in October of 2009. Over the course of Obama’s 8 years in office that number fell to 4.8%.

That’s a drop of 5.2%.

See that big slide in the graph above?

Under Trump unemployment has fallen from 4.8% to 4.1%. That constitutes a decline of .7%.

See what the simple math shows?

Trump wants you to think he got us all the way down to 4.1% when in reality it was Obama who did the heavy lifting from 10% to 4.8%.

Got it?

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January Jobs Report: 200K New Jobs But Black Unemployment Spikes

The new jobs report is out and there’s good and bad news.

Good news is unemployment remains steady at 4.1%

The bad news is the black unemployment rate, which Donald Trump touts as being “the lowest rate ever recorded” spiked upwards more than a full percentage point.

Via Mediaite:

In Trump’s first year in office, he presided over a 1% decline in the black unemployment rate, which is really just the continuation of a 1% per-year decline that started under President Obama.

But now, it looks like Trump won’t have “record low” talking point to kick around anymore.

The January jobs report is in, and black unemployment has spiked, to 7.7 percent, more than one full percentage point higher than it was in December’s report.

Overall, the economy created 200,000 new jobs in January, not a bad number, with economists initially predicting job growth at around 180,000. It must be noted, however, this falls short of January 2017, in which the Barack Obama-led economy created 227,000 new jobs — though, technically, Trump was president for ten of those days.

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Jobs Report: 2017 Had Weakest Jobs Growth In 7 Years

The new jobs report from the Department of Labor is out today showing employers added 148,000 jobs in December missing the estimated 190,000 figure.

Additionally, the October and November numbers were down showing 9,000 less new jobs than previously reported.

Unemployment remains at 4.1%.

Interestingly, back in 2012, Trump told his followers we needed at least 300K new jobs a month for growth. December’s number are less than half that.

Plus, it’s worth noting that Trump’s big claim to being president is his business acumen and job-creating ability. And yet, in his first year in office, he oversaw 2.06 million new jobs added to the U.S. economy while President Obama’s last year showed 2.24 million new jobs.

The year 2017 represents the weakest year in job growth since 2010.

Even Fox News delivered the bad news.

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2017 Average Monthly Job Gains Lag Behind 2016

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. added 228,000 jobs in November 2018.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1%.

While Donald Trump has touted his “job creation” skills, the fact is he has lagged behind the average number of jobs added each month during President Obama since the end of the Great Recession.

For instance, during Obama’s last year in office, the economy averaged 190,000 new jobs a month while 2017 has averaged 174,000 a month.

Check out other year averages below.

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U.S. Loses 33,000 Jobs In September, First Job Losses In 83 Months Of Growth

The Labor Department released its official hiring and unemployment figures for September this morning.

This is the first report of job losses after 83 months of job growth.

From the New York Times:

■ The economy lost 33,000 jobs last month, the first monthly decline in employment in seven years. Wall Street economists had expected very modest employment gains of 80,000, according to Bloomberg.

■ The unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent. August’s jobless rate was 4.4 percent.

■ The average hourly wage grew by 0.45 percent, for a year-over-year gain of 2.9 percent.

■ Revised figures for July and August showed that a total of 38,000 fewer jobs were created in those two months than previously reported.

Experts blame the job losses on Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, but President Obama was able to maintain job growth through Hurricanes Matthew and Sandy.

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