Some Economic Data

From the October jobs report as summarized by The Wall Street Journal.

  • 131,000 new jobs
    • exceeded expectations
    • despite some 42,000 jobs lost to the union strike against General Motors
  • upward revisions of 95,000 jobs in August and September
  • job growth averaged 176,000 in the last three months, more than the 167,000/mo for all of 2019
  • overall labor force participation rate rose to 63.3%, which is rising despite baby boom retirements
  • employment ratio for prime-age workers, age 25 to 54, rose to 80.3%, highest since January 2007—since before the Panic of 2008
  • jobless rate for African-Americans fell again to 5.4%
    • new low since records have been kept
    • third successive month at 5.5% or lower so it’s not a statistical anomaly
  • labor participation rate for Hispanic-Americans reached 67.3%, best since September 2010
  • rise in average hourly earnings averaged 3% over last year
  • index of weekly payrolls rose more than 4% over last year, faster still for production and nonsupervisory workers

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), though, says these positive data

offer[] further evidence that the Republicans’ disastrous special interest agenda is hollowing out the middle class while enriching the wealthy and well-connected.

Do we really need someone so disconnected from reality in the people’s House?

Or is it that her impeachment hysteria is clouding her ability to interpret simple economic data?  In which case: do we really need someone whose judgment is so easily confused in the people’s House?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *