The White House is taking a victory lap upon the release of the December jobs report, reminding everyone that President Obama said, “The verdict is clear: Middle-class economics works. Expanding opportunity works.”
Watch here:
"The verdict is clear:
Middle-class economics works.
Expanding opportunity works."
—@POTUS #JobsReport https://t.co/OnMbBo0FxW
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— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 8, 2016
The latest jobs report is out and the economy added 292,000 jobs in December — the strongest two years of job creation since 1998-2000. The jobs added since June of 2009 are also mostly full time.
The President tweeted, “The December jobs report shows big gains in employment and higher wages for American workers.”
December’s jobs report bears more bad news for Republicans and more good news for the people. “The economy added 292,000 jobs in December, marking the strongest two years of job creation since 1998-2000,” Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers concluded.
As a reminder:
1. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
2. George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
3. Barack Hussein Obama, 2009- 2017
Cough.
Jason Furman distilled the numbers, “Our economy has now added more jobs over the past two years than in any two-year period since 1998-2000. In fact, the annual average unemployment rate has seen its fastest two-year decline in thirty years.”
“Most importantly, wages have risen faster over the past year than at any time since the recovery began. Nevertheless, we still have more work to do to drive further job creation and faster wage growth,” Furman added, with a push for the passage of TPP.
The first point of five Furman made in his statement:
Our businesses have now added 14.1 million jobs over 70 straight months, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that private employment rose by 275,000 jobs in December, while private employment growth in October and November was revised up by a combined 51,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent in December while the labor force participation rate edged up to 62.6 percent. Average hourly earnings for all private employees have now risen 2.5 percent over the past year, the fastest pace since the recovery began. Overall, our businesses have added 5.6 million jobs over the past twenty-four months—the most in any two-year period since 1997-1999.
President Obama has consistently set monthly records for consecutive private sector job growth. For example, October was another historical record for private sector job growth under President Obama, which made it the 68th consecutive month of private sector job growth. That was 13.5 million private sector jobs over 68 straight months.
In November, research showed that median household income had finally recovered from the Bush Recession.
We have previously debunked the Republican talking point that Obamacare would be a job killer. Also, once again, Obamacare didn’t turn the country into a “part-time nation!”
“Since June 2009, almost all of the 9+ million jobs added have been full-time positions,” Nick Timiraos of the Wall Street Journal pointed out.
How about Republicans claiming that President Obama has been terrible for the black community? Keith Boykin pointed out, “The black unemployment rate has been cut in half under President Obama from 16.8% in 2010 to 8.3% now.”
Furman explained:
The unemployment rate is fully recovered for both genders and across all racial and ethnic groups reported by BLS. In particular, the African-American unemployment rate is at its lowest level since September 2007, 15 percent below its pre-recession average. The unemployment rate for women is at its lowest level since April 2008, 7 percent below its pre-recession average. Like all labor market indicators unemployment rates for particular demographics tend to be volatile, and it is important to focus on long-term trends in these and other data.
We still have a long way to go before minorities make gains at the same rate as white men, but the doomsday predictions and accusations made by Republicans have not come to fruition.
The Obama administration has certainly earned the right to take a victory lap, especially given the relentless trolling of their attempts to help the American people. This most certainly is “good news”, people.
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