Great news for US workers
Published 6:00 pm Thursday, October 17, 2019
The nation’s economy continues to produce record low unemployment rates — and still-growing employment figures — which is good news for everyone, especially American workers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September unemployment rate, released earlier this month, showed a dip to 3.5 percent, the 19th straight month with the jobless rate being under 4 percent.
The Trump administration’s pro-job growth policies and the Tax and Jobs Act of 2017, are producing results for every segment of the population, including record lows matched or set in September for African Americans, Hispanics and those with disabilities.
Besides great low unemployment rates, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 136,000 jobs last month. The average pace of job growth has been an impressive 179,000 jobs per month over the past year.
There have been more than 6.4 million jobs added for the nation’s workers since January 2017, with sustained job growth year-after-year since.
Also, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the third quarter of 2019, 73.7 percent of workers entering employment came from out of the labor force rather than from unemployment, the highest share since 1990.
Unemployment Insurance claims are on a 239 consecutive week streak of remaining at or below 300,000, which is the longest streak since at least 1967. And that is despite the labor force more than doubling in size since then.
The nation’s workers are also enjoying 17 straight months of the number of unemployed people being lower than the number of job openings. That gives job hunters a lot of opportunities.
The unemployment-employment statistics for September in Louisiana aren’t out yet, but in August 2019 the size of the civilian labor force in the state shrank, compared to August 2018, according to BLS.
Translated the into actual numbers, that means the Louisiana labor market shrank from 2,100,000 to 2,094,000 over that one-year period.
Congress needs to be supportive of the great American labor market, and in cooperation with President Trump, keep it strong and thriving, as it currently is. That’s what American workers deserve.
