Unemployment At Lowest Point In 5 1/2 Years

You probably won’t see this on the nightly news, and you sure as heck won’t hear it from any Democrat:

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to its lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years during October as 92,000 more jobs were added and hiring in each of the two prior months was revised up, a government report on Friday showed.

The October new-jobs figure was below Wall Street economists’ expectations for 125,000 but the Labor Department said a total 139,000 more jobs were created in August and September than it had previously thought. It revised up September’s job-creation total to 148,000, or nearly three times the 51,000 it reported a month ago, and said there were 230,000 new jobs in August instead of 188,000.

The unemployment rate fell in October to 4.4 percent from 4.6 percent in September. It was the lowest unemployment rate since 4.3 percent in May 2001 and was likely to fan concerns that labor markets are growing tight and could contribute to inflation pressures.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent to $16.91 – higher than the 0.3 percent that analysts had anticipated – while the average work week edged up to 33.9 hours from 33.8. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.9 percent, the department said.

Most of the new hiring in October was in service industries, where 152,000 new jobs were created, while goods-producing industries shed 60,000 jobs.

It just kills the media to have to report on how the economy is in such great shape, so they have to throw in those other figures, despite the positives they just mentioned.

“Oh, it’s all burger-flipping jobs” is what they’re trying to say. Nevermind that earnings are up and have been going up for some time. Nevermind that we’re nearing a point that could be considered “full employment”. Nevermind that the stock market is at an all-time high. That all means nothing. It goes against the Democrat’s meme, that the economy is terrible and people are hurting, selling their bodily fluids to pay their gas bills, what have you.

The fact is that the tax cuts worked, the economy is humming along, and everyone, regardless of politics, should be happy about that.

Brian runs the website Iowa Voice, and is filling in for ST for a few days.