Well, this is awkward for Republicans. The Obama economy has set yet another job growth record in the private sector.
The first of five key points Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, made about the stats from the Bureau of Labor was that March makes the 61st straight month of job growth—“extending the longest streak on record”.
Upon the March job numbers being released by the Bureau of Labor, Furman issued a statement in conjunction with making five key points, the first of which was that this is the 61 straight month of job growth, the longest streak on record:
The private sector has added 12.1 million jobs over 61 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 126,000 in March, driven by a 129,000 increase in private-sector employment. This particular month’s job gains were below the recent trend, as job growth in a number of industries slowed somewhat (see point 5). Over the past twelve months, the private sector has added 3.1 million jobs, nearly the highest year-over-year growth in the recovery so far.
Here’s a graphic from Furman of the Obama surge:
All is not rosy, as job growth slowed beneath the recent trend, but it is still rocking a record streak — with hourly earnings continuing to rise, which is a critical point for working Americans.
Furman summed up the findings, “The March employment report reflects a pace of monthly job growth below the recent trend, coming on the heels of February’s strong report. The unemployment rate was stable, broader measures of unemployment fell, and hourly earnings continued their rise. A range of factors including the weather and the global economic slowdown have affected economic data for the first quarter. The President has been clear that he will continue to push for policies including investments in infrastructure and relief from the sequester that would help ensure the strong underlying longer-term trends persist.”
The other recent record holder for job growth was another Democrat, President Bill Clinton. These trends give you an indication as to why Republicans are trying to avoid domestic issues in the 2016 race. Adding insult to injury, these job gains are in the private sector- that sector Republicans pretend to be experts at, and keep promising that their trickle down theory is the master of.
Back in September of 2014, President Obama shattered President Clinton’s previous record of 51 consecutive months of private sector job growth. In September, I compared these two Democratic Presidents with Presidents Bush I and II, and even with President Reagan:
An excellent record of job growth under a Democratic President is not an anomaly. President Clinton added a total of 23.1 million jobs, while George W. Bush only added 3 million over his entire 8 year term and his father, George H.W. Bush, only added 2.5 million but he did that over one term. Heck, Ronald Reagan only added 16 million jobs, and he is held up by Republicans as the business God.
Before Republicans spit out more of their Obamacare job killing talking points, someone might want to familiarize them with this 61 month streak of adding jobs under Obama. It’s a record, and it’s been a record for a while, so it’s something that’s hard to miss if you’re awake and operating within some realm of reality.
Other points of good news are that real aggregate weekly earnings have risen “nearly 5% over the last twelve months”. That’s purchasing power of wages and salaries for private sector employees. “Aggregate earnings are nearly 7 percent above their pre-crisis peak.”
In all of this good news, we’ve all been aware that people still needed to make better wages, that wages have stagnated and have not risen to keep pace with inflation. Indeed, as the top 2% get wealthier and wealthier, working Americans are working more for less. The Obama administration has been working hard to fix this, and has taken to going around Republican obstruction in Congress on this issue to work directly with mayors and governors around the country, and with private companies, to push for a raise to the minimum wage.
So it is more good news that hourly earnings have risen. But we still need better wages for working families.
Republican have done everything possible to kill any chance of an economic recovery from the Bush crash, so they can hardly take credit for private sector job growth under Obama. Republicans went so far as to shutdown the government and force it to operate under their slash and dash sequester, which negatively impacted public sector jobs and hurt real Americans. They have refused to pass Obama’s jobs bills.
Republicans have stood in the path trolling recovery at every turn, to no avail.
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