U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, made a point to laud the good Bureau of Labor Statistics November jobs report Friday.
“The November Jobs Report is very good in the context of two troubling events: the threatened return of socialist, anti-growth policies of Democrats who have captured the House of Representatives and rising interest rates (caused by Federal Reserve hikes coupled with America’s dangerous deficits straining credit markets),” Brooks said. “These combined threats undermine the economic confidence of job creators which, in turn, risk causing adverse impacts on America’s economy.”
“Despite threatened socialist policies and rising interest rates, in November, America’s economy added 155,000 new jobs, average hourly income continued to grow at a 3.1% annualized rate, and unemployment remained steady at the 50-year low rate of 3.7%— all welcome news for American workers,” Brooks said. “I am very pleased that Americans are personally benefitting from the tax cuts and deregulation policies that spurred 2018 to be America’s strongest growth rate in over a decade!”
Brooks said that the key takeaways from the Bureau of Labor Statistics October jobs report are: America’s economy added 155,000 new, nonfarm payroll jobs in November 2018; America’s November unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, a year-to-year improvement of 0.4 percentage points over the 4.1 percent unemployment rate of November 2017; and over the past year, the average weekly earnings for all non-farm American workers increased by 0.2%, or six cents (to $27.35/hour). That is an 81 cent improvement in hourly wages over the past year.
Brooks said that African-American unemployment fell by 0.3 percentage points, to 5.9 percent, which is the all-time record low unemployment rate for African-Americans. Asian-American unemployment fell from 3.2 percent to 2.7 percent. The Caucasian-American unemployment rate actually rose from 3.3 percent to 3.4 percent. The Hispanic-American unemployment rate rose from 4.4 percent to 4.5 percent. The labor participation rate remained unchanged at 62.9 percent. The long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or more), declined by 120,000 to just 1.3 million.
This is the lowest the unemployment rate since December 1969, and this is the fifth consecutive month that the unemployment rate has been below 4 percent. There have only been 12 months since 1970 that the unemployment rate has fallen below 4 percent. Seven of those months occurred this year.
More than 73 percent of adults entering employment are coming out of the labor force rather than from unemployment.
The gains were apparent in most industries. The biggest gains this month were in transportation and warehousing (25,000) and in manufacturing (27,000). Overall manufacturing has added 468,000 jobs since the election.
Brooks represents Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District.
