Economy

65 Months of Job Growth

Written by SK Ashby

The U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs during the month of July according to the Labor Department.

via Bloomberg

Employers added 215,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 percent, a Labor Department report showed Friday in Washington. The gain in payrolls last month followed a 231,000 advance in June that was bigger than previously estimated. [...]

Retail and professional business services led the industries adding to headcounts in July, followed by health care and leisure and hospitality. Manufacturing payrolls rose by the most in six months on gains among non-durable goods producers. More jobs were also added in construction.

As the White House points out today, this marks 65 straight months of job growth and unemployment has reached pre-recession levels.

The unemployment rate has fully recovered from the Great Recession, and broader measures of the labor market show substantial progress but still point to some remaining slack. With today’s report, the headline unemployment rate (on an unrounded basis) moved below its pre-recession average for the first time in the recovery.

I watched the entire GOP primary debate last night and I can scarcely recall any mention of the economy between the candidates' increasingly radical positions on Iran and abortion.

What I do remember is a spattering of talking points resembling the same talking points we've come to expect from the Republican party over the course of a generation: occasional pandering to the "American Dream" and a call for tax cuts.

The Republican nominee for president, regardless of who it is, would roll back the economic progress made under the Obama administration just as surly as they would the social progress.