BIDENOMICS
‘Wowza’: Economists thrilled with ‘huge’ jobs report and wages outpacing prices
David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
October 4, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
The September jobs report is a stunning confirmation of just how "strong" and "resilient" the U.S economy is, according to economic experts who are celebrating Friday morning.
"US economy smashes expectations with 254,000 jobs added in September," The Financial Times reports, "far outstripping expectations."
"Wowza: HUGE jobs report," exclaimed Professor of economics Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at Brookings and a frequent guest on cable news. "This economic expansion that is motoring along."
"This is a great September jobs report," declared The Washington Post's Heather Long. "The 'soft landing' is still on track."
The New York Times' economic reporter, Talmon Joseph Smith, summed up the news
‘Wowza’: Economists thrilled with ‘huge’ jobs report and wages outpacing prices
David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
October 4, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
The September jobs report is a stunning confirmation of just how "strong" and "resilient" the U.S economy is, according to economic experts who are celebrating Friday morning.
"US economy smashes expectations with 254,000 jobs added in September," The Financial Times reports, "far outstripping expectations."
"Wowza: HUGE jobs report," exclaimed Professor of economics Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at Brookings and a frequent guest on cable news. "This economic expansion that is motoring along."
"This is a great September jobs report," declared The Washington Post's Heather Long. "The 'soft landing' is still on track."
The New York Times' economic reporter, Talmon Joseph Smith, summed up the news
Economists had expected 140,000 to 159,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, continuing the Biden administration's historic record of producing and maintaining unemployment at five-decade lows.
"Average hourly earnings grew 0.4% last month, and are now up 4.0% over the year. There's no question that wages are running ahead of prices, and people are seeing meaningful real wage gains," he added. Wolfers says he's "been relentlessly optimistic about the economy for the past couple of years, and it's felt lonely at times during the drumbeat of 'recession' talk, but it's also been a pretty great place to be. If you were looking for what a soft landing looks like, this is it."
Bloomberg News adds, "Unemployment for major ethnic groups -- Black, White, Hispanic -- fell, while the Asian unemployment rate held steady."
President Biden, who worked with the dockworkers union to bring an extraordinarily fast end to their strike that ended after just three days this week, took a victory lap.
"Today, we received good news for American workers and families with more than 250,000 new jobs in September and unemployment back down at 4.1%," President Biden said in a statement. "With today’s report, we’ve created 16 million jobs, unemployment remains low, and wages are growing faster than prices. Under my Administration, unemployment has been the lowest in 50 years, a record 19 million new businesses have been created, and inflation and interest rates are falling. And we’re seeing the power of collective bargaining to lift up workers’ wages—including the progress made by dockworkers on record wages with carriers, and port operators and the reopening of East Coast and Gulf ports."
Biden also took a swipe at Republicans.
"Congress should pass our plan to build millions of new homes, expand prescription drug price caps, empower workers and protect the right to organize, and cut taxes for hardworking families. Congressional Republicans have a different plan—more giant tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, ending the Affordable Care Act, undermining workers by cutting overtime and making it harder to organize, and imposing a national sales tax that would raise costs by nearly $4,000 per year. While they put billionaires first, we’ll keep fighting to grow the middle class."
See the social media posts above or at this link.
"Average hourly earnings grew 0.4% last month, and are now up 4.0% over the year. There's no question that wages are running ahead of prices, and people are seeing meaningful real wage gains," he added. Wolfers says he's "been relentlessly optimistic about the economy for the past couple of years, and it's felt lonely at times during the drumbeat of 'recession' talk, but it's also been a pretty great place to be. If you were looking for what a soft landing looks like, this is it."
Bloomberg News adds, "Unemployment for major ethnic groups -- Black, White, Hispanic -- fell, while the Asian unemployment rate held steady."
President Biden, who worked with the dockworkers union to bring an extraordinarily fast end to their strike that ended after just three days this week, took a victory lap.
"Today, we received good news for American workers and families with more than 250,000 new jobs in September and unemployment back down at 4.1%," President Biden said in a statement. "With today’s report, we’ve created 16 million jobs, unemployment remains low, and wages are growing faster than prices. Under my Administration, unemployment has been the lowest in 50 years, a record 19 million new businesses have been created, and inflation and interest rates are falling. And we’re seeing the power of collective bargaining to lift up workers’ wages—including the progress made by dockworkers on record wages with carriers, and port operators and the reopening of East Coast and Gulf ports."
Biden also took a swipe at Republicans.
"Congress should pass our plan to build millions of new homes, expand prescription drug price caps, empower workers and protect the right to organize, and cut taxes for hardworking families. Congressional Republicans have a different plan—more giant tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, ending the Affordable Care Act, undermining workers by cutting overtime and making it harder to organize, and imposing a national sales tax that would raise costs by nearly $4,000 per year. While they put billionaires first, we’ll keep fighting to grow the middle class."
See the social media posts above or at this link.
By AFP
October 4, 2024
The United States added 254,000 jobs in September, much more than expected, while the jobless rate edged down according to government data
- Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. FALLON
Beiyi SEOW
Hiring in the United States picked up significantly more than expected in September while the jobless rate crept lower, according to government data released Friday, offering relief to policymakers ahead of November’s election.
The world’s biggest economy added 254,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labor said. This was markedly higher than August’s 159,000 number, which was also revised upwards.
A consensus estimate by Dow Jones had expected growth of 150,000.
The unemployment rate dipped from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent, the report added.
The health of the job market has come into focus over recent months as high interest rates bite — but the pick-up in hiring should assuage concerns that the Federal Reserve waited too long to slash rates last month, risking a downturn.
Economic issues are also among the most important for voters ahead of November’s presidential election, as households grapple with higher costs of living after high inflation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Fed had rapidly hiked the benchmark lending rate in 2022 to ease demand and tamp down surging inflation. Price increases have eased in recent times, allowing the central bank to begin rate reductions.
As for wages, average hourly earnings in September were up 0.4 percent from a month ago to $35.36, slightly above expectations.
From a year ago, wages have risen by 4.0 percent, the report noted.
– Strike impact? –
The Fed’s half percentage point rate cut in September was “unusually large” according to Dan North, senior economist for Allianz Trade North America.
“It’s most likely that the Fed cut so much because it felt that it had fallen behind in its mission to balance employment and inflation,” he told AFP.
The stronger than expected report on Friday might mean the Fed can take a more gradual path to rate cuts, given that the economy appears to be holding up.
On Friday, the Labor Department noted that “employment continued to trend up” in areas like food services, health care, government and construction.
But economist Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics warned that even though a strike by Boeing workers did not affect September’s employment data much, it could weigh on job growth if it persists through mid-October.
About 33,000 workers in the Pacific Northwest region walked off the job on September 13, effectively shutting down assembly plants for the 737 MAX and 777 after overwhelmingly voting down a contract offer.
“Hurricane Helene may also weigh on job growth in October,” she added.
Watch: Fox Business scrambles to put negative spin on blockbuster new jobs report
Brad Reed
Brad Reed
RAW STORY
October 4, 2024
Maria Bartiromo. (Jacqueline Zaccor/Flickr)
A panel on Fox Business scrambled on Friday to put a negative spin on a blockbuster new jobs report that showed more than 250,000 jobs were created in September.
Even though the new report showed not only strong growth in hiring but also growth in wages significantly outpacing inflation, panelist Joanie Bily nonetheless believed it showed a weak economy if you simply disregard a large number of the jobs that were created.
"When you dig into the data in this report, you can see that those jobs are really created and coming from health care and then leisure and hospitality," she said. "Those are the two big sectors, almost 160,000 of those jobs created in September came from those sectors... the leisure and hospitality are low-paying jobs."
She then told viewers to focus on a net loss of 7,000 manufacturing jobs over the month and the fact that the construction sector "only" gained 25,000 jobs on the month.
"So if you take out those two sectors, this really isn't a blockbuster report," she explained.
In fact, if you take out the 160,000 of the 250,000 jobs created, it would still lead to a net result of 140,000 jobs created, which would be in line with the consensus expectation of 150,000 created in September.
Nonetheless, this argument was enough to convince host Maria Bartiromo.
"I'm changing my tune on this," she said of the report. "We're looking at low-paying jobs... we're looking at government jobs... these are the jobs where, okay, that's fine, but these aren't the jobs that we want to see growing!"
October 4, 2024
Maria Bartiromo. (Jacqueline Zaccor/Flickr)
A panel on Fox Business scrambled on Friday to put a negative spin on a blockbuster new jobs report that showed more than 250,000 jobs were created in September.
Even though the new report showed not only strong growth in hiring but also growth in wages significantly outpacing inflation, panelist Joanie Bily nonetheless believed it showed a weak economy if you simply disregard a large number of the jobs that were created.
"When you dig into the data in this report, you can see that those jobs are really created and coming from health care and then leisure and hospitality," she said. "Those are the two big sectors, almost 160,000 of those jobs created in September came from those sectors... the leisure and hospitality are low-paying jobs."
She then told viewers to focus on a net loss of 7,000 manufacturing jobs over the month and the fact that the construction sector "only" gained 25,000 jobs on the month.
"So if you take out those two sectors, this really isn't a blockbuster report," she explained.
In fact, if you take out the 160,000 of the 250,000 jobs created, it would still lead to a net result of 140,000 jobs created, which would be in line with the consensus expectation of 150,000 created in September.
Nonetheless, this argument was enough to convince host Maria Bartiromo.
"I'm changing my tune on this," she said of the report. "We're looking at low-paying jobs... we're looking at government jobs... these are the jobs where, okay, that's fine, but these aren't the jobs that we want to see growing!"
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