GREAT NEWS: Unemployment rate falls almost 2% since last month!

by The Right Scoop

Employers added almost 1.4 million jobs as the unemployment rate fell close to 2% from last month’s 10.2%:

CNBC – Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4% as the U.S. economy continued to climb its way out of the pandemic downturn.

The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. An alternative measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons also fell, down to 14.2% from 16.5% in July and 22.8% at the peak in April.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting growth of 1.32 million and the jobless rate to decline to 9.8% from 10.2% in July.

“We are still moving in the right direction and the pace of the jobs recovery seems to have picked up, but it still looks like it will take a while – and likely a vaccine – before we get back close to where we were at the beginning of this year,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank. “We continue to be optimistic that the economy has turned a corner and that we’ll continue to see steady progress.”

Government hiring helped boost the total, with the growth of 344,000 workers accounting for a quarter of the monthly gain. Most of that hiring came from Census workers, whose rolls increased by 328,000. Despite worries of a revenue crunch among at the municipal level, local government employment rose by 95,000.

The total of those on furlough also fell dramatically. There were 24.2 million people who said they not working because their employer either closed or lost business due to the pandemic, down from 31.3 million in July.

Notice that the alternative measure (U6) fell by even more than 2%.

President Trump has already tweeted the good news, saying:

You’d think the newsers would be reporting all of this accurately, but some are already spinning it as Ed Morrissey points out:

 
NBC News calls it a ‘halting recovery’:

 
The NY Times says it’s a ‘slower pace than the spring’:

Not all of them are reporting it with a negative spin, but a few definitely are and you know exactly why: it’s more good news for Trump!


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