Trump inherits a healthy job market, with solid hiring
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reina Borges, left, stands in line to apply for a job with Aldi at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla.
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump has inherited a healthy-looking job market from his predecessor, with the U.S. economy registering a burst of hiring in January and an influx of Americans looking for work.
U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s the biggest gain since September, and it exceeded last year’s monthly average of 187,000.
Unemployment ticked up to a still-low 4.8 percent from 4.7 percent in December. But it rose for an encouraging reason: More Americans started looking for work last month.
The unemployment rate counts only those people who are actually trying to find a job. All told, more than a half-million Americans began looking in January, and the vast majority landed a job.
That suggests the job market could grow more quickly than expected in the coming months.
“You could have a faster pace of job growth, because you have more people out there looking for work,” said Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Investors appeared upbeat about the jobs report. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 187 points to lift the index back above 20,000.
Yet some of the economy’s softness remains: Average hourly wages — a weak spot since the Great Recession ended 7½ years ago — barely rose last month. And the number of people working part time who would prefer full-time work climbed.
The January figures reflect hiring that occurred mostly before Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Still, it was the first employment report to be released with Trump in the White House.
The president expressed satisfaction with the jobs report and suggested that the sharp hiring gain reflected confidence among employers about his administration.
“Great spirit in the country right now,” Trump said as he began a meeting at the White House with corporate CEOs and other business leaders. “We’re very happy about that.”
As a candidate, Trump frequently argued that the government’s jobs data exaggerated the health of the economy. He called the unemployment rate a “hoax” and said it declined after the recession under President Barack Obama mainly because many Americans stopped working or looking for work.
Friday’s figures also represent a final report card on Obama. The economy added jobs for a record 76 straight months, or nearly 6½ years, and gained 11.5 million jobs during his two terms in office.
That puts Obama fourth in job-creation among the 12 presidents who have served since World War II, according to Hamilton Place Strategies, a consulting firm.
Many employers appear to have adopted a more positive outlook since Trump’s election. His promise of tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending has increased their confidence that the economy’s sluggish growth will pick up.
The National Federation of Independent Business said its measure of small-business optimism soared 38 points in December to its highest level since 2004. And the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped to a 15-year high in December before dipping slightly last month.
Economists said optimism may have played some role in lifting hiring last month.
“I think there is some anticipatory hiring going on,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University. “The only way I can really explain that is optimism related to the election.”
Robert Mayfield, 69, owns eight Dairy Queen franchises and an independent restaurant in Austin, Texas. He plans to open a ninth DQ that will employ about 30 people and said he is much more bullish about the economy since the election.
“It’s surprising how much your horizons change when you feel good about the economy,” he said. “Instead of hunkering down, we’re looking to expand.”
Some of January’s hiring probably reflects weather and other seasonal quirks. Construction companies, for example, added 36,000 jobs, the most since March. That figure might have been boosted by unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast.
And retailers generated 46,000 more jobs, the sharpest monthly gain in nearly a year. But that number probably reflected imperfections in the government’s seasonal adjustment process, which tries to account for the pre-holiday hiring boom and the post-holiday layoffs.
27 responses to “Trump inherits a healthy job market, with solid hiring”
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more Shibai from the Libertard Press. Barry is history with reported stagnant economy and he alone Double the national debt.
You have to admit it was pure Trump taking credit for President Obama’s jobs numbers.
Republicans are also hypocritical by saying when Obama has been president that the govt cooks the numbers.
It’s not quantity, it’s quality. Most of the new jobs were part time, reflected by lower average wages. Plus many new jobs went to illegal immigrants.
@ Pocho
TRUTH hurts.
SA/AP/FAKEnews uses “inherit”…amounts to just another skewed biased hit piece.
Trump did not inherit a healthy job market; he created it. The “burst of hiring in January and an influx of Americans looking for work” resulted from Trump’s election, the things he said he would do during the campaign and the things he did immediately upon become President on January 20th.
Kim Jong Trump has created nothing but EOs that are being overturned by the courts
MrMusubi, I assume “Mr Spam Musubi” because what you are spewing is junk. Trump has signed seven executive orders and eleven executive memos. Not one has been overturned by the courts. One has been challenged in court and currently is on a court-ordered TEMPORARY restraining order, but it has not been overturned.
@ Ronin006
What POTUS Trump has done in the last two weeks is more than what O has accomplished in two terms.
O has accomplished nothing POSITIVE..ONLY NEGATIVES.
Agree. Both of us can figure this out.
Indeed. Momentum was building after Nov. 8. Then came Jan. 20, and a stumbling start for this administration. Guessing a lot of the goodwill and confidence have dimmed over the past couple weeks. Can our “so-called president” regain the lost momentum? Stay tuned.
It’s Obama’s legacy that he lead us out of the Great Recession created by George Bush.
Here’s an economist who is somewhat cautionary of increased fiscal spending under Trump. It’s not a bad idea but you don’t want to harm the great progress we’ve made under Obama…
https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/notes-on-the-macroeconomic-situation/
Please, Krugman???
Agreed w/ post#1–the media is spreading propaganda–everything good in the world is b/c Barney and everything bad in the world is DT–all BS. It is getting to the point that one cannot believe what is written by the media–all fake stuff. See what happened on election day and forward–the stock market has been both up and down but in general up—DJ at 18,000 on 11/2017 is now hovering near or at 20,000. There is transition and the resistance by the small liberals in the US but the majority of Americans that want change in government and voted DT into office knows that the media is exaggerating reactions–the people that voted DT into office is solidly behind him.
Left wing spin coming from this news media! Gonna have to get used to it though, due to the fact that Democrats cannot/will not except 2016 Election results! Agree with both post by Ronin006 and San Pablo. Obama has NOTHING to do with rise in job market. The left winger are unbelievable!
The media will try to discredit anything the Trump administration does . Get use to it.
For job growth, Obama became President at a good time with the start of recession. It’s like June Jones taking over for Fred von Appen; ha, ha. IMHO Obama did okay regarding the job market providing government subsidies to corporations and to certain parts of our population which can be a topic of debate. However he made it more costly for companies to operate with increased regulations. Example of looking behind the job numbers: “The share of Americans working or looking for jobs is near historic lows … there was a substantial increase in food stamp rolls which encouraged some Americans to remain idle.”
If we permit all kinds of banking, then we have seen that no regulations can lead to a bubble and perhaps another Great Depression unless of course, someone like Obama takes action.
Regulation is necessary because we have learned the hard way that this is how economic depressions get started. How quickly we forget the lessons of the Dodds-Frank Act.
AP/SA/”INHERIT”=FAKEnews
& yet, U R here everyday, lapping it all up like a kid eating ice cream
Very dishonest article by a Rothschild owned and controlled news organization. Trump did not inherit a strong job market from Obammers.
It is Trump’s election and his actions since he came into office and efforts at job creation, deregulation and tax reform proposals that have created the potential for
growth of the economy and for job creation.
Obammers 8 year term in office was devastating to jobs and the economy and he only had a paltry 2 – 3 percent growth during his time as president, the
worst record of any modern president. Obammers will go down in history as the worst President in modern times, worst even than Jimmy Carter.
You’re actually very correct, fiveo. A much better gauge is GDP; not job numbers. But as we know, SA is pro-Obama so they don’t want to cloud his reputation and legacy. Besides, the Federal Reserve has a lot to do with employment as this is one of their dual mandates. Of course their artificial low interest rate policy can be debated that they’ve created another ‘bubble’ in the market.
Here in Hawaii…..two jobs is not uncommon…..cash under the table is alive.
with rising minimum wages I see food prices rising too…so I’am shopping the sales more than ever before and trying to live below my means……it’s hard.
Go trump 2020….
Nice try Star Advertiser with the BS.
Obama’s exit from office is what sparked the increased hope for the economy thanks to his choke-hold on many employers/companies with all his tree hugging environmental regulations.
FAKE NEWS! Move along.
Obama’s administration did a great job for our economy the last 8 years. Now it’s Trump’s opportunity to take it to a higher level. It’s time to start paddling the canoe and do something. Good luck to him.