The Facts
The US Dept. of Labor reported Friday that the country added 353K jobs last month, much higher than the expected 185K. The report also showed the unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 3.7%, compared to the estimated jump to 3.8%. Average hourly wages also increased by 0.6% from December and by 4.5% year-over-year.
The job growth included 74K jobs in professional and business services and 70K jobs in healthcare, though mining and logging saw a decrease in workers.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Not only has the US been adding jobs, but it's remained at the Fed's goal of 2% inflation for six months now and seen a very respectable gross domestic product jump of 3.3% at the end of last year. The unfortunate reality of today's America is GOP-led hyperpartisanship — which means that despite every economic figure trending in a positive direction, Republicans are going to ignore this tremendous news and mislead their voters ahead of the 2024 election. However, as more Americans begin to feel these positive trends, those lies won't work as well going forward.
Republican narrative
If this jobs-added report was so positive, why did both the labor force participation and unemployment rates remain unchanged? The report also hasn't counted the thousands of recently announced layoffs by companies including Google, Amazon, BlackRock, and UPS. And claims that real wages went up have been rendered baseless, as hours worked have gone down. The only positive news is that the Fed might lower interest rates — another Biden-appointed government body that chose to suffocate the economy as an official policy.
