Trump's Jobs Problem Is Exact Opposite of Obama's: Not Enough Workers for Explosive Growth
For the entirety of Barack Obama’s presidency, there were more unemployed workers than there were job openings — sometimes by a jaw-droppingly large margin.
That gap hasn’t just narrowed during the Trump administration — the numbers have reversed. Not only that, but unemployment has hit a 49-year low. The GDP grew by 3.2 percent for the first quarter of 2019, beating expectations of 2 percent.
In short, things are pretty good, and unofficial “jobs czar”/official first daughter Ivanka Trump is doing a victory lap.
“We’re making it happen,” Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard in a commentary piece published last week.
“Our policies continue to deliver more and better jobs for American workers.”
The Bureau of Labor’s jobs report for April bears that out.
“The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 3.6 percent in April, the lowest rate since December 1969. Over the month, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 387,000 to 5.8 million,” the report read.
“In April, the number of persons unemployed less than 5 weeks declined by 222,000 to 1.9 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.2 million in April and accounted for 21.1 percent of the unemployed,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
And then there were the February job openings statistics.
“On the last business day of February, the job openings level fell to 7.1 million (-538,000),” the report, released in April, read.
“The job openings rate was 4.5 percent. The number of job openings fell for total private (-523,000) and was little changed for government.”
In other words, 7.1 million job openings, 5.8 million on unemployment.
“Driving inclusive economic growth, so all of our country’s hard-working citizens can achieve the American dream, is our mission — and we’re making it happen,” Ivanka Trump told the Examiner.
There were plenty of other things that Trump was celebrating, too:
Happy Friday! In April…
▪️The U.S. added 263,000 JOBS, crushing market expectations!
▪️Unemployment rate fell to 3.6% = lowest rate since Dec 1969
▪️Adult (20+) women unemployment rate fell to 3.1% = lowest since 1953
This is what winning for America looks like! ?? #JobsReport— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 3, 2019
During the darkest days of the Obama presidency, as The New York Times reported in 2010, there were over 15 million unemployed, the unemployment rate was 9.6 percent and hiring was scarce.
It turns out that Trump, a businessman with no government experience, is able to handle the business of America — which, as Calvin Coolidge noted, is business. Who would have thought?
That’s going to be a very difficult thing for Democrats to argue against in 2020, which is why they probably won’t.
The March job openings numbers come out Wednesday, and we’ll certainly see what they have in store — but whatever the case, this will still be one of the strongest arguments for the president going into next year’s election.
No wonder Ivanka’s doing a victory lap.
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