Still Think Republicans Are Better For The Economy? New Jobs Report Proves Them Wrong (VIDEO)
November 7, 2015Elisabeth Parker Economics
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Republicans claim our economy does better when they’re in the White House while doing everything they can to drag it down. Yet President Barack Obama’s managed to contain the GOP’s damage while steering us through a slow-but-sure recovery from George W. Bush’s Great Recession. Now, we’re finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just released an astonishing jobs report for October that shattered everyone’s low expectations.
THIS JOBS REPORT IS ‘EVEN BETTER THAN IT SEEMS.’
The jobs report shows that the most significant gains are in construction, retail, and healthcare (sorry, Obamacare haters) — all seen as classic signs of a strong economy. FiveThirtyEight further explains that the October jobs report is “even better than it seems.”
271,000 jobs have been added to the economy.
The unemployment rate’s gone down from 5.1 percent to 5 percent — the lowest since the economy tanked in 2008.
High demand is finally starting to push wages upwards. Average earnings rose by 9 cents an hour to $25.20 per hour — 2 percent higher than last year.
Underemployment is also falling: The number of people working part-time who need to work full-time declined by 270,000.
Job growth is happening across a wider range of industries as measured by a healthy 61.8 (indicating more industries gaining than losing jobs) on the diffusion index.
And here’s some even better news: The October jobs report shows that — despite August’s and September’s more discouraging numbers — job growth and the economy are trending upwards.
What makes Friday’s report significant, then, isn’t that it suggests the job market has found a new gear. Rather, the October numbers are significant because they suggest that the previous two disappointing jobs reports were themselves outliers. The “true” pace of U.S. job growth may not be as good as October’s numbers, but it’s probably better than August’s or September’s.
Of course, the media doesn’t want to give President Obama any credit for these improving job numbers and our rebounding economy. They prefer to whine about the Fed having to raise interest rates. And of course, as ABC News reports, Wall Street hates the fact that America’s working families are finally start getting a break.
The prospect of higher interest rates initially drove down financial markets Thursday, though stock indexes finished mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note surged to 2.33 percent from 2.23 percent, suggesting that investors see a greater likelihood of a rate increase.
But the good news is that — if the trends shown in October’s jobs report continues — Democrats may fare better in 2016,
Strong hiring and pay raises, if they continue, could make it harder for Republicans to mount effective attacks on the Obama administration’s economic record and could bolster Democratic prospects in the 2016 elections.
THE ECONOMY IS FINALLY RECOVERING FOR THE REST OF US.
“These are very strong numbers and likely to continue,” Northern Trust’s chief economist Carl Tannenbaum told ABC. “The two summer months that were low now look like the aberration.”
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