Jobs

Weekly Jobless Claims Fell by More Than Expected As Trade War Escalated

The number of Americans filing applications for new unemployment benefits plunged lower last week even as trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalated. New claims for state unemployment benefits declined by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 212,000 for the week ended May 11, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Initial jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs. The low number of claims suggests that rising tariffs and retaliation by China have not hurt American workers. Claims were expected to decline to 219,000 from the elevated levels seen in the prior three weeks. The four-week moving average of initial claims, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility and is looked at as a more reliable measure of the labor market, rose 4,750 to 225,000 last week. Continuing claims, which are announced with a week delay, fell 28,000 to 1.66 million for the week ended May 4. The four-week moving average of ticked up 1,500 to 1.67 million.

Promises Kept: Trump Economy on Track to Create 25 Million Jobs Over 10 Years

Back in 2016 when Donald Trump declared in a speech at the New York Economic Club that his economic plan would create 25 million new jobs over the next decade, many economists scoffed. After years of economic expansion, even a sluggish one, the idea that the economy could add the 208,000 jobs each month needed to hit that goal struck many as far-fetched. Many thought we would be lucky if job creation kept up with population growth, creating around 90,000 jobs per month. But the economy is outperforming expectations–and helping President Trump fulfill his job promise. The economy created an average of 223,000 per month in 2018. And with January’s mammoth 304,000 non-farm payroll gain, the three-month moving average hit 241,000 jobs. During the course two years of the Trump presidency, the economy has added 4,879,000 jobs. That puts Trump just 121,000 jobs behind being exactly on target to create 25 million jobs over 10 years, a 2.48 percent gap. As January’s numbers demonstrated, that could be made up in a single month.

You cannot argue with the numbers.  No matter what the dominantly liberal mainstream media tells you, or how they try to spin it, the Trump economy has been on fire.    🙂

Data: Foreign Workers See 4X the Job Growth of Americans in January

Foreign-born workers are continuing to make significant employment gains over native-born American workers, the latest federal job data reveals. For the month of January, foreign-born workers increased their labor participation rate year-to-year nearly nine times as much as native-born Americans. Likewise, foreign workers enjoyed nearly four times the job growth in January as American workers. While the foreign worker population increased about 3.4 percent year-to-year, the American worker population increased less than 0.9 percent over the same period. Even in unemployment data, foreign-born workers are vastly outpacing American workers. For January, foreign-born workers saw their unemployment rate drop 4.46 percent compared to this time last year. For native-born American workers, the unemployment rated dropped, but at a much slower pace, with a year-to-year decrease of about 2.22 percent. Though President Trump campaigned to decrease overall illegal and legal immigration to the U.S., regulatory curbs to immigration laws have not actually reduced the number of legal immigrants arriving in the country every year. About 1.5 million foreign nationals arrive in the U.S. annually, as well as the 1.5 million foreign workers occupying high-paying, white-collar American jobs at any given time. In December, November, October, and September of last year, foreign-born workers continuously made larger gains over American citizens in monthly employment and unemployment totals. While legal immigrants continued being admitted to the U.S. to take blue-collar working-class jobs and many white-collar, high-paying jobs, there remains 6.5 million Americans who are unemployed, 12.9 percent of whom are teenagers, and 6.8 percent of whom are black Americans. Overall, about remain about 1.3 million U.S. workers have been jobless for at least 27 weeks, accounting for about 19 percent of the unemployed population. Roughly 5.1 million workers are working part-time but want full-time jobs, and 1.6 million workers want a job, including 426,000 workers who are discouraged by their job prospects.

Labor Force Participation at Trump-Era High of 63.2% in January

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 304,000 jobs last month, higher than analysts were expecting. The number of employed Americans, 156,694,000, was slightly below last month’s record (156,945,000), and the unemployment rate increased a tenth of a point to 4.0 percent. But the labor force participation rate increased a tenth of a point to 63.2 percent — the highest it’s been on President Trump’s watch. In January, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 258,239,000 (lower than it was last month). Of those, 163,229,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 163,229,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 63.2 percent of the 258,239,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population.

Jobs Growth Explodes Higher, Adding 312,000 Jobs in December, Far More than Expected

Job creation boomed in December. U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent, according to data released Friday. Economists had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise by 176,000 and the unemployment to hold steady at 3.7 percent. The previous month was revised up as well. November, initially reported at a lower than expected 155,000 jobs gain, was revised up to 176,000. October’s gain went from 274,000 to 237,000. That adds up to a net gain of 58,000 from the previous tallies. The labor market has been one of the bulwarks of the economy, remaining strong even while financial markets have gone wobbly. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent, more than the 0.3 percent expected. A month earlier, wages grew 0.2 percent. Compared with a year earlier, wages were up 3.2 percent, handily beating consumer price increases. The annual gain tied with October’s for the best since 2009. The average work week rose 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours. The rise in unemployment was due to nearly 400,000 Americans entering the workforce. The labor force participation rate rose by two-tenths of a percentage point. It’s likely that higher wages and plentiful jobs are luring people back into the workforce. The revival of American manufacturing continued in the final month of 2018. The economy added 32,000 factory jobs for the month, including 19,000 positions added in the durable goods sector. That brings total new manufacturing jobs to 284,000 in 2018, a 37 percent rise from the previous year. And it was a jolly season for retail, which added 24,000 jobs for the month. Compared to last year, retail employs 92,0-00 more jobs than a year ago. Construction jobs also came in strong, despite many fears about a slumping housing market. The industry added 38,000 jobs, lifting the annual total to 280,000, 12 percent higher than the prior year. Restaurants and bars decked the halls with new positions, adding 41,000. Health care was the strongest sector for the month, with 50,000 new jobs.

Great news!!  For more on how well we’re doing with manufacturing jobs, scroll down about three articles.    🙂

American Economy Added The Most Manufacturing Jobs in Over 20 years

Donald Trump has delivered on a key promise that many economists said was impossible: manufacturing jobs boomed in 2018. The manufacturing sector added 284,000 positions over 2018, its best year since 1997. The revival of American manufacturing was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to Make America Great Again. Many economists derided the idea that manufacturing could boom in the U.S., insisting that a combination of automation and globlization meant that factory jobs were gone for good. Some even accused Trump of attempting to “con” the American people with promises of manufacturing jobs. Perhaps the highest profile attack on Trump’s manufacturing jobs promise came from then-President Barack Obama. “Well, how exactly are you going to do that? What exactly are you going to do? There’s no answer to it,” Obama said. “He just says, ‘Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.’ Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.” Obama’s skepticism is perhaps understandable. On the campaign trail in 2012, Obama pledged to create 1 million manufacturing jobs in his second term. Instead, the U.S. economy added only 549,000 jobs in manufacturing over the following four years. In his final year in office, manufacturing employment actually contracted. For an administration staffed by people who regarded themselves as the smartest economics minds on the scene, the failure to revive manufacturing jobs likely made it seem like an impossible task. In fact, in Obama’s entire eight-year term, the economy never added as many manufacturing jobs as it did last year. In Obama’s very best year, the economy added 211,000 manufacturing jobs–and that was building from a very low base because so many jobs had been destroyed by the Great Recession. The 2018 performance is all the more remarkable because it was not a rebound from a recession. In fact, last year the economy added 207,000 manufacturing jobs. To put it into perspective, Trump’s economy added nearly as many manufacturing jobs in its first two years than Obama’s economy added in his entire second term. The manufacturing jobs boom also defies the predictions that tariffs and trade disputes would weigh on domestic manufacturers outside of steel and aluminum. Instead, manufacturing added jobs at a faster clip than the broader economy. And far from being crushed, data in January shows that export manufacturing has not only continued to grow but the rate of growth is accelerating. These are good jobs making lasting products. About two-thirds of 2018’s new manufacturing jobs are in durable goods, which includes machinery, autos, airplanes, and other big-ticket items. Economists will no doubt spend years figuring out exactly what gave rise to the Trump manufacturing boom and why so many forecasts were so far off-base. No doubt trade policy, tax cuts, and regulatory reform all played a role. But a good deal of the manufacturing revival is likely based on something less tangible but no less real: the revival of hope. People who believe we can “make America great again” are hiring, starting new businesses, and returning to the workforce. Maybe Obama’s “magic wand” comment was not so far off. But he should have called it a MAGA Wand.

HAHA!  Exactly!!  Thanks to John Carney for bringing us that piece.  Just more great news in this Trump economy!!      🙂

156,562,000: Record Employment for 12th Time Under Trump

The economy is the second most important issue for registered voters as the midterm election nears, a new Gallup Poll says. And there was very good economic news on Friday, as the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics rolled out the October employment report — the final one before next week’s midterm election. The number of employed Americans has never been higher. The 156,562,000 Americans employed in October is the twefth record set under President Donald Trump. In October, the number of employed men age 20 and up — 80,405,000 — set the 12th record since Trump took office; and likewise, for the 12th time, the number of employed women age 20 and up set a record, reaching 70,909,000 in October. The unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent, the same as September, which is the lowest it’s been in decades — since the end of 1969. And the Hispanic unemployment rate, 4.4 percent, has never been lower. The unemployment rate for African-Americans, 6.2 percent, remained near the all-time low of 5.9 percent set in May. On top of those numbers, the economy added a whopping 250,000 jobs last month. After revisions, job gains have averaged 218,000 over the past 3 months. (“Wow!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. “The U.S. added 250,000 Jobs in October – and this was despite the hurricanes. Unemployment at 3.7%. Wages UP! These are incredible numbers. Keep it going, Vote Republican!”) The number of Americans not in the labor force dipped to 95.8 million, down from last month’s record high; and the labor force participation rate increased two-tenths of a point to 62.9 percent, a move in the right direction. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.5 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (11.9 percent), Whites (3.3 percent), Blacks (6.2 percent), and Asians (3.2 percent) showed little or no change in October. In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents to $27.30. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 83 cents, or 3.1 percent. In October, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 258,514,000. Of those, 162,637,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 162,637,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 62.9 percent of the 258,514,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population, the same as August.

Wow!  More great news in this Trump economy!!  For more, click on the text above.   🙂