Expectations heading into Friday morning’s unemployment data showed projections of about 190,000 new jobs having been added in the United States in June. As it turns out, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market managed to do a bit better than that. NBC News reported:
The economy added 206,000 jobs last month, according to fresh government data, but unemployment inched above 4% for the first time in over two years. The June jobs report, released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed somewhat hotter hiring than the 200,000 nonfarm job gains economists had expected.
In addition to the encouraging top-line data, we also learned that wage growth continued to outpace inflation. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, inched a little higher in the new report, climbing to 4.1% from 4%, which obviously isn’t ideal, though the figure is still incredibly low in historical terms.
Nevertheless, what matters most about the latest report is the overall job creation totals. I’m mindful of polls showing a discouraged public, but over 1.3 million jobs have been created so far this year, and if this pace keeps up, the United States will see roughly 2.7 million new jobs this year, which is excellent.
As for the politics, let’s circle back to previous coverage to put the data in perspective. Over the course of the first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency — when the Republican said the U.S. economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created roughly 6.38 million jobs, spanning all of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
According to the latest tally, the U.S. economy has created over 16 million jobs since January 2021 — more than double the combined total of Trump’s first three years.
In recent months, Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them. Not surprisingly, GOP officials kept the trend going late last week.
For some additional context, consider job growth by year over the past decade, updated to reflect the latest data revisions:
2013: 2.3 million
2014: 3 million
2015: 2.7 million
2016: 2.3 million
2017: 2.1 million
2018: 2.3 million 2019: 1.98 million 2020: -9.3 million 2021: 7.2 million 2022: 4.5 million 2023: 3 million Six months into 2024: 1.33 million This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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