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Friday, February 2, 2018

The Jobs Report

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly jobs report a few minutes ago.  Unemployment stayed at 4.1%.  200,000 jobs were created during January.  Those are fine numbers, but here's the key:  wages rose much more rapidly than they did during 2017.  The YOY figure for wages is now up 2.9% and that does not include any of those bonuses that so many businesses have given to workers after the passage of the tax cut legislation. 

During the eight years of Obama, wages were stagnant.  More than anything else, the failure of wages to rise meant that American families had to struggle with rising health care costs, rising housing costs and other expenses without getting a raise to help pay for these things.  The rate of wage growth started to move more quickly after President Trump took office, but the figures for January mark a very positive change in that rate of growth.  Finally, the average middle income family should start to catch up to its expenses.  When one adds in the increase in take home pay due to the tax cuts, the income for the average middle income family will get a meaningful boost for the first time in a decade.

Trump got elected by promising to help the forgotten Americans.  After a year in office, Trump looks like he is fulfilling that promise.

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