The Bureau of Labor Statistics released June’s jobs report on Thursday. The report was released a day earlier than normal due to Friday being a national holiday. The BLS showed that the economy added 288,000 jobs in the month of June. Also, the jobs numbers for both May and April were revised upwards, revealing that the economy added an additional 29,000 jobs over those two months compared with initial projections. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%, the lowest level the nation has seen since September 2008, when the financial crisis was hitting full steam.
Economic forecasters predicted a good month for jobs in June, but nowhere near this high. For the most part, forecasts figured June would see an addition of about 215,000 non-farm payroll jobs. The actual figures from BLS blew those predictions out of the water. Also, April’s figures were revised up to 304,000 and May’s to 224,000. This represents five straight months where the economy has added 200,000+ jobs.
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Income inequality and stagnant wages still appear to be an issue. Over the past 12 months, wages have risen by 2.0%, which is pretty much in line with inflation. Overall, the median wage in June was $24.45 an hour, which was up 6 cents from the previous month. Also, involuntary part-time employment increased by 275,000 while long-term unemployment declined by 293,000. This seems to indicate that with long-term unemployment benefits cut, those who have been out of work for more than 6 months are now having to work part-time, low-wage jobs to make ends meet.
Still, all in all, this was yet another positive jobs report. It shows that under President Obama, the country has fully pulled itself out of the despair of the Great Recession. The unemployment rate has fallen from a high of 10.0% in 2009 to today’s 6.1%. Under Obama’s watch, the unemployment rate has nearly been cut it half. However, if you were to listen to the conservative media and Republicans on Capitol Hill, you’d think that President Obama has spent the last five-plus years decimating this nation’s economy. Any good economic news will either be downplayed or completely ignored.
Want proof? On Thursday morning, after the jobs report was released, CNN and MSNBC both featured it as their top story on their websites. Fox News, on the other hand, barely mentioned it, pushing it off to the side in small print.
Shocking, I tell you.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
