Expectations heading into this morning showed projections of about 240,000 new jobs having been added in the United States in April. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market didn’t manage to do quite that well. CNBC reported:
The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in April while the unemployment rate rose, reversing a trend of robust job growth that had kept the Federal Reserve cautious as it looks for signals on when it can start cutting interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 175,000 on the month, below the 240,000 estimate from the Dow Jones consensus.
In addition to the top-line data, we also learned that wage growth continued to outpace inflation. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, inched a little higher in new report, from 3.8% to 3.9%, though it’s worth emphasizing that the jobless rate has now been below 4% for 27 consecutive months — a streak unseen in the United States since the 1960s.
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 United States’ economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created roughly 6.35 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. No one should be surprised if GOP officials keep the trend going today.
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: 2 million 2020: -9.3 million 2021: 7.3 million 2022: 4.8 million 2023: 3 million One-third of the way into 2024: 982,000 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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