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Soon after Ilana Benet retired from her job as a labor and delivery nurse, it hit her: She missed the babies. And her employer missed her. Ms. Benet, a registered nurse, had worked at Montefiore Health System in the Bronx for 40 years before retiring two years ago at age 60. As a grandmother of 10, Ms. Benet wanted to spend more time with her family. But she quickly realized — within weeks — that she wasn’t ready for full retirement. Montefiore was ready to welcome her back. The hospital system developed an informal program to rehire some retired nurses...

'Inclusive' Boom: It may be a surprise, but President Trump is nowhere near as unpopular among minority voters as the biased mainstream media suggest. Why is that? In a word, jobs. Trump, it turns out, has been the most consequential president in history when it comes to minority employment. In June, for instance, the unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos 16 years and older fell to 4.6%, its lowest level ever, from 4.9% in May. The previous all-time low was 4.8%. African-American unemployment bounced up from its all-time low of 5.9% in May to 6.5% in June. But that 6.5%...

Recently, the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker,” Meg Kelly, awarded Ivanka Trump two Pinocchios for saying that people were returning to the work force. The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman took on the Post’s fact checker for pointing out that what was really being checked were opinions, not facts, and the only fact they commented on, they acknowledged to be true.But it is possible to be even more definitive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports employment rates for different demographic cohorts. The data prove that Trump is correct.Consider first her statement. “I think one of the tremendous opportunities that we’re...

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 213,000 in June, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

The employment part of the economy continued to power forward in June, adding another 213,000 jobs though the unemployment rate rose to 4 percent, according to a government report Friday. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a nonfarm payrolls gain of 195,000 and the jobless rate to hold steady at 3.8 percent, which had been tied for the lowest since 1969. Another solid month of job gains provided little help to wages. In addition to the payroll gains, average hourly earnings rose 2.7 percent year over year, a bit below expectations of a 2.8 percent increase. Despite increasing talk about...

(CNSNews.com) - "Our economic policy can be summed up in three very simple but beautiful but beautiful words," President Donald Trump told a rally in Montana Thursday evening: "Jobs, jobs, jobs," he said. On Friday, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 213,000 jobs in June, a strong number; the number of employed Americans, 155,576,000, set its tenth record of the Trump presidency; but the number of unemployed Americans (which includes people who are actively looking for jobs) increased by almost half-a-million. The unemployment rate increased two tenths of a point to 4.0 percent. In June,...

Last week, I testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the state of the American labor market. I summarized my message in one sentence: For American workers, the job market has never -- or at least seldom -- been better. If you don't have a job, go out and get one, because jobs are out there for the taking. Everyone knows the joyous statistics, of the lowest unemployment rate in two decades, the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment rates in three decades (at least), a record number of Americans today who are working, and 5 million...

Weekly jobless claims drop 3,000 * Four-week average of claims falls 4,000 * Mid-Atlantic factory activity slows in June WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, pointing to a further tightening in labor market conditions. Other data on Thursday showed a moderation in factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region in June amid a decline in new orders. Firms, however, continued to report overall increases in employment this month. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 218,000 for the week ended June 16, the Labor Department...

With unemployment at 3.8 percent, its lowest level in many years, the labor market seems healthy. But that number hides a perplexing anomaly: The percentage of men who are neither working nor looking for work has risen substantially over the past several decades. The issue, in economist’s jargon, is labor force participation. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys households, every adult is put into one of three categories. Those who have a job are employed. Those who are not working but are searching for a job are unemployed. Those who are neither working nor looking for work are counted...

President Trump repeatedly points out that black unemployment is at its lowest point ever. His premise is that more black persons with jobs is a good thing. If you’re rational, you’ll agree. But if you’re a Democratic politician, your job — and sense of moral superiority — depends on blacks remaining unemployed. Because if they’re unemployed, it means they’re more dependent on government health care, government welfare, food stamps, and all the rest. Ditto for other minorities. Democratic leftist politicians want black people on the plantation. Not literally, because there are no plantations. The modern plantation is the government dependence...

Every time the mainstream media touts some “wonderful new economic numbers” I just want to cringe. Yes, it is true that the economic numbers have gotten slightly better since Donald Trump entered the White House, but the rosy economic picture that the mainstream media is constantly painting for all of us is completely absurd. As you are about to see, if honest numbers were being used all of our major economic numbers would be absolutely terrible. Of course we can hope for a major economic turnaround for America under Donald Trump, but we certainly are not there yet. Economist John...

A number of months ago, when Republicans' collective 2018 fate was looking fairly bleak, I attended an off-the-record briefing that reviewed internal party polling, highlighting the party's strengths and weaknesses heading into a challenging midterms.  The political headwinds, as they're often referred to, were blowing against Team Red -- based both on historical precedent and measurable electoral outcomes.  Many of those same obstacles remain firmly in place today.  But two of the bright spots that the assembled GOP gurus underscored were (a) the growing strength of the US economy, thanks to tax reform and other policies, and (b) the polarizing unpopularity of...

Supply side economics works, and if one can keep the government out of the way, all boats will truly rise on the rising tide As much as I am eager to celebrate the American economy coming back into the land of the living, I am also cautious about getting into the Conga line until I can look at some of the internal numbers associated with those who are striving to achieve the American dream. What is not often discussed by the pinheads on TV is that the level of participation in the labor force is perhaps as important as the...

The New York Times headline reporting on the May jobs numbers that came out yesterday might go down in history: "We ran out of words to describe how good the jobs numbers are." The real question in analyzing the May jobs numbers released Friday is whether there are enough synonyms for "good" in an online thesaurus to describe them adequately. So, for example, "splendid" and "excellent" fit the bill. Those are the kinds of terms that are appropriate when the United States economy adds 223,000 jobs in a month, despite being nine years into an expansion, and when the unemployment rate falls...

The real question in analyzing the May jobs numbers released Friday is whether there are enough synonyms for “good” in an online thesaurus to describe them adequately. So, for example, “splendid” and “excellent” fit the bill. Those are the kinds of terms that are appropriate when the United States economy adds 223,000 jobs in a month, despite being nine years into an expansion, and when the unemployment rate falls to 3.8 percent, a new 18-year low. “Salubrious,” “salutary” and “healthy” work as words to describe the 0.3 percent rise in average hourly earnings, which are up 2.7 percent over the...

President Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders making it easier to fire federal government workers and rolling back the prerogatives of unions that represent them. Andrew Bremberg, the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said the president was “fulfilling his promise to promote more efficient government by reforming our Civil Service rules.” But the push also reflects conservatives’ long-running suspicion of the federal bureaucracy, one that the president’s advisers have been outspoken in channeling. Shortly after Mr. Trump took office, Stephen K. Bannon, then his chief strategist, called for “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”...

Job openings hit a fresh record in March, further defying opinion that the labor market is tightening and near full. The level hit 6.6 million, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Tuesday that, even though lagging a month, is closely watched for signs of market slack. Job openings in total rose by 472,000 over February. Openings jumped in professional and business services, which added 112,000 positions, as well as construction, with 68,000 and transportation, warehousing and utilities, which reported 37,000 new positions. The openings happened during a month when nonfarm payroll hiring grew by 135,000, according...

You have to go all the way back to December 2000 to find the last time the unemployment rate was as low as April's 3.9%. But hold the standing ovation. The labor market isn't as bright, or as tight, as it might seem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the economy added 164,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment level dropped to 3.9%. It was 4.8% when President Trump took office. Since Trump took office, the economy has added a total of 2.7 million jobs, and since his tax cuts took effect we've seen an average 200,000 new jobs...

President Trump is proud of the 3.9% unemployment rate, the lowest since 2000. But it’s not as great as it sounds. Employers added 164,000 jobs in April, which was lower than forecasts but still okay. Employers have created an average of 200,000 new jobs each month so far in 2018, which is a strong pace of job growth. But the unemployment rate, which fell from 4.1% to 3.9%, is a puzzlement. There were fewer people looking for jobs in April, which means fewer people counted as unemployed. When unemployment falls because people get jobs, that’s good. But when unemployment falls...

First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to a 48-year low last week as the labor market shows further signs of tightening after years of steady growth. Claims plummeted to 209,000, a decrease of 24,000 in the week through April 21, from the previous week's 232,000, the lowest level since Dec. 6, 1969, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The four-week moving average, a better gauge of the labor market's health, fell by 2,250 claims to 229,250. New York accounted for the bulk of the drop, with the number of claims in the state dropping 18,402. A tighter labor market is...