Free Republic

Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 157,000 for the month, below the 190,000 expected in a Reuters survey of economists and the lowest gain since March. A 33,000 miss this month but 59,000 gain for the previous two months.

Payroll growth turned sluggish in July after two robust months, though the unemployment rate edged lower and the overall jobs picture continued to look solid, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday. Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 157,000 for the month, below the 190,000 expected in a survey of Reuters economists and the lowest gain since March. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.9 percent, as expected, and is around its lowest level in nearly 50 years. In the key wages category, average hourly earnings also met expectations, increasing 2.7 percent over the same period a...

California's Employment Development Department announced on Friday that unemployment held steady in June at 4.2%.  That's the good news.  The astonishing news is that the largest state in the union created a net gain of only 800 jobs. L.A. Times: The June numbers represent a pullback from May, when the Golden State added 7,200 jobs.  And the gains in May were much smaller than April, when employers boosted payrolls by nearly 26,000. The slowdown could signal that California is simply reaching full employment.  Employers are struggling to find workers.  Or it could be a sign of sagging confidence among executives.  A growing trade war with...

New claims for unemployment benefits fell 8,000 to 207,000 in the second week of July, the Department of Labor reported Thursday morning, the lowest such number since 1969. Forecasters had expected new jobless claims to edge up to around 220,000. Instead, fewer people sought unemployment insurance than anytime in 48 years. Thursday's benchmark is especially impressive given that the labor force is twice as large as it was in late 1969. Then, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, Richard Nixon was president, and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" was the top song in the country. Low claims are...

New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caused a stir for criticizing Israel’s "occupation” of Palestine in a recent interview. Ocasio-Cortez, who surprisingly won a New York Democratic primary on a socialist platform, made the remark during an interview on PBS’s "Firing Line" on Friday. The 28-year-old political newcomer was roundly criticized for making the statement then admitting that she is "not the expert at geopolitics on this issue." It wasn't the only controversial thing Ocasio-Cortez said during the "Firing Line" interview...

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...