Economy Adds 12.8 Million Jobs Over 64 Straight Months
President Obama's economy has added 12.8 million private sector jobs
over 64 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on
record. …
And they called him a lame duck. President Obama’s
economy has added 12.8 million private sector jobs over 64 straight
months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record.
Thursday’s job announcement numbers put another
feather in the cap of the President’s legacy, as he has now presided
over 64 straight months of private sector job growth. Yes, that’s right.
The
Department of Labor announced that the economy added 223,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent:
Total nonfarm payroll
employment increased by 223,000 in June, and the unemployment rate
declined to 5.3 percent, the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health
care, retail trade, financial activities, and in transportation and
warehousing.
Insert right wing screams here as business
leaders are telling Republicans that they don’t know what they are
doing, after they failed to renew the Export-Import Bank’s charter.
From the administration’s Council of Economic Advisers:
The private sector has added 12.8 million jobs over 64 straight months
of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned
that total nonfarm employment rose by 223,000 in June—and all those jobs
came from the private sector. Although total job growth was revised
down somewhat in April and May, much of the revision is attributable to
lower government employment than previously estimated. On the whole, our
economy has added 2.9 million new jobs over the past twelve months,
near the fifteen-year high achieved in February.
Of course, as President Obama keeps saying, all is
not well. Not only have we had major cuts in the public sector, thanks
in large part to Republican cuts and their sequester, but Americans need
more good paying jobs. Additionally, the labor force grew more slowly
in June than it usually does. “Over the past sixty years, the labor
force has grown by 1.8 percent in June on average before seasonal
adjustment—more than three times faster than May, the next fastest
month. But this June, the labor force only rose 0.4 percent.”
Betsey Stevenson, a member of the Council of
Economic Advisers, said in a statement “Our economy has now added 5.6
million jobs over the past two years, the strongest two-year job growth
since 2000.” But she cautioned, “But despite this progress, there is
more work to do. We must continue to build on the positive trends
underlying our economy by ensuring that Americans working overtime
receive a fair day’s pay, opening new markets for U.S. goods and
services through expanded trade, increasing investments in
infrastructure, providing relief from the sequester, and raising the
minimum wage.”
(Note the administration keeps pushing that trade
deal among their other pushes of raising the minimum wage and paying
fair overtime wages.)
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi couldn’t help but
contrast the longest stretch of private sector job growth with the
Republican shutdown of the Export-Import Bank’s charter, “June’s job’s
report shows our economy continuing to move in the right direction,
extending the longest uninterrupted stretch of private sector job
creation in our history. Yet again and again, the shutdowns and
manufactured crises of the Republican Congress have put this progress at
risk, costing our country jobs, weakening our economy, and undermining
hard-working families.”
And noting that construction jobs are low for this
month, it’s a good time to bring up the Republican failure to do
anything with infrastructure like the long-term Highway and Transit
Trust Fund bill.
“Earlier this week, Republicans forced the
expiration of the Export-Import Bank’s charter, endangering thousands of
export-reliant jobs and small businesses across America. House
Republicans still have no plan for the long-term Highway and Transit
Trust Fund bill needed to avert the crisis they punted to the end of
this month — inaction that threatens hundreds of thousands of good
paying construction jobs and critical infrastructure projects.”
Pelosi nailed the prevailing mood of the country in
her last paragraph, saying in part, “Hard-working families deserve
better than a Congress that shows so little interest in their jobs,
their wages and their communities.”
Republicans and pundits have been clinging to the
fact that employment numbers are adjusted over time and that is true.
For example, the Department of Labor notes, “With these revisions,
employment gains in April and May combined were 60,000 lower than
previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged
221,000 per month.”
But 221,000 job gains per month is the Republican
idea of bad news? We’ll take it. Also, before Republicans get too smug,
let us not forget why those numbers were revised down — lower government
employment than previously estimated. That would be the Republican
contribution to the jobs numbers. They lowered them. Maybe we should be
talking about that.
There is a 64 month streak of gaining private sector
jobs and that hasn’t changed even after the numbers are revised. I
think it’s safe to stop trolling the facts and start asking Congress why
they haven’t done a thing to help Americans get better paying jobs.
President
Obama is on a streak of legacy making wins, from the Supreme Court’s
ruling that Obamacare is Constitutional to opening an embassy in Cuba to
the new job numbers, it’s been a good few weeks for the President’s
record.
