The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday released its monthly Employment Situation Report (pdf), which showed continued employment growth and near record unemployment rates in October. Employment gains among African-American women and Latinos were particularly impressive.
Payroll employment rises by 128,000 in October; unemployment rate changes little at 3.6% https://t.co/NsuHovcqn0 #JobsReport #BLSdata
— BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) November 1, 2019
The unemployment rate for African Americans reached a record low of 5.4 percent—a fall of 2.6 percent since President Trump took office.
The unemployment rate for black women reached just 4.4 percent, a reduction of 0.8 percent since July. However, unemployment for black males rose slightly from 5.8 to 5.9 percent, remaining close to its historic low from last month.
Another solid #JobsReport with annual wage growth staying above 3% and black jobless rate hitting best level on record! Great news… https://t.co/RY6EynWdrb
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) November 1, 2019
The White House pointed out that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 128,000 jobs last month, far exceeding market expectations of about 75,000. In an interview with Fox News, however, economist and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, described the gains as a “blowout number.” He said that when the numbers were corrected to include an upward revision of 95,000 jobs for August and September, a decrease in unemployment of 60,000 due to the recent resolution of the GM strikes, and including 20,000 temporary employees finishing their work for the U.S. census, the true number of jobs created was in the region of 303,000.
Wow, a blowout JOBS number just out, adjusted for revisions and the General Motors strike, 303,000. This is far greater than expectations. USA ROCKS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2019
According to the White House, “Since the President’s 2016 election, the economy has added over 6.7 million jobs—more than the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Montana in 2018. Additionally, this total is 4.8 million more jobs than the Congressional Budget Office projected would have been created in its final forecast before the 2016 election.”
While some commentators pointed out that manufacturing jobs failed to improve in October, the 40-day strike at GM that involved some 46,000 GM workers certainly played a role. According to the White House press release, over 500,000 jobs have been added during this administration.
new #jobs numbers out today: Despite the #GM strike affecting an estimated 60K workers, the US economy added 128K jobs in October, blowing past market expectations!
— CEA (@WhiteHouseCEA) November 1, 2019
