Friday’s job report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was a head-turner for everyone in the labor force, job-seekers and every politician with any sense at all. It should be a major alarm bell for Democrats and their operatives who insist on denigrating free market capitalism and chasing their tails on the impeachment merry-go-round.
There were 266,000 new jobs were created in November; experts expected only 166,000 jobs to be created. That includes 41,000 that were solid manufacturing jobs, not flipping-burgers-at-McDonald’s jobs.
The number of jobs created in October and September was revised upward by 41,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, a 50-year low. By contrast, the unemployment rate in socialist countries keeps inching up, not down. France’s unemployment rate is 8.6%; Sweden’s rate is 6.6% and the Godfather of all socialist disasters, Venezuela, is sporting a 26.4% unemployment rate.
Does anyone in the United States really want to emulate any of those results? If socialism is so great, how come so many people around the world are not able to find a job? Doesn’t the government create enough jobs for them to do, even if it is menial work?
Percentages don’t tell the whole story; real numbers do. There are 158 million Americans working today, the highest in history. Close to 100 million white Americans are working, while 19.5 million African-Americans are working full-time jobs as well as 28.3 million Hispanic-Americans. There are 10.4 million Asian-Americans working today; only 2.6% of Asian-Americans are unemployed. And 74.5 million female Americans of all races are working today.
People have watched the total U.S. stock market increase in capitalization by $10 trillion according to the Wilshire 5000 index, up 54% since Election Day 2016. Close to 100 million households out of 130 million total households in America own mutual funds or stock portfolios in personal, IRA or 401(k) accounts that are increasing, not decreasing, for retirement or consumption purposes.
Not a single Democrat in Congress or the Senate voted for the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 that has contributed heavily to this state of low unemployment and increase in wealth for people who vote. Republicans will run ads against every incumbent Democrat for the next year reminding voters that they had nothing to do with this return of prosperity they are enjoying.
5.8 million Americans are unemployed. Roughly 7 million jobs are unfilled in America today. There is no shortage of jobs available. There are not enough properly trained people with specific skills looking for work to fill those jobs.
Real wages went up 3.5% in November. Although most of the growth in wages is tied to educational and trained technical skills ability, it is still a sign of growth and job opportunity in the American economy regardless of the dystopian view of America put out by the dour Marxian view of the economy by socialist Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
If you watch MSNBC or CNN all day long, you would be led to believe these are the worst of times in the United States. Nothing could be further from the truth based on these recent economic numbers.
Thankfully, most normal people don’t binge–watch cable news shows. Out of 350 million people, only an average of 5 million people, or 2.5% of the entire population, watch any cable news shows on any given evening: 2.4 million viewers for FOX News; MSNBC at 1.5 million and CNN at 1 million.
They are usually the same viewers every single night.
Close to 200 million adults are doing important things after work such as reading or playing with their kids, going to the Y to get some exercise, going to church, or less important things such as watching “Dancing With The Stars” or NFL football. They are not watching the latest on the impeachment hearings or propaganda from either side.
“Are you better off now than you were in 2016?” Millions of voters are going to have a tough time saying no.
