- More jobs are being created: With businesses adding 210,000 jobs in July, that extends the run to 65 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, to the tune of 13.0 million jobs overall.
- Let’s break that down: that means, on average, private businesses have been creating roughly 6,500 new jobs every single day since February 2010.
- This is the second year in a row that we’re averaging 200,000 new total non-farm jobs per month through July. That hasn’t happened since 1999-2000.
- The recovery is broad-based, with employment gains happening throughout the economy. Job growth is more widespread across industries than at any point since 1998.
- Unemployment holds steady: The July unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, the first time it has fallen below the pre-recession average (December 2001-December 2007).
African-American unemployment, while still far too high at 9.1 percent, has seen a steady decline in recent years (a 5 percentage point drop from three years ago). - Employment is rising with the temperature: Thanks to summer jobs, 2.1 million more young people (ages 16-24) were working in July than in April.
When young people have summer jobs, it gives them the opportunity to acquire and hone the skills they need to build successful careers down the road. - Wages are inching up, but America needs a raise: Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents in July, with a 2.1 percent increase over the last 12 months.
Still, for decades now, workers have had little to show in their paychecks for greater productivity. That’s why President Obama has proposed changing the overtime rules to give millions of workers access to time-and-a-half pay. That’s why Congress must increase the minimum wage (Did you know that last year, Wall Street bonuses were more than double the total earnings of all full-time workers on the federal minimum wage?). - We need more people in the workforce: Labor force participation rate in July was 62.6 percent, remaining stable following a significant drop during the recession. But we can do more to boost that number, for example by passing a national paid leave law – just as every other advanced economy on earth has done – to help bring more women into the workforce.
RNC Statement on July Jobs Report
CLEVELAND, OH – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on the July jobs report:
“The untold story of the job market is that while some Americans are thankfully finding jobs, others are finding it impossible to secure enough work. In this sluggish economy, part time workers want to work full time but can’t. Others have dropped out of the labor force because there are no jobs for them, which in turn deceptively drives down the unemployment rate. On top of that, we learned that the last three months saw the slowest wage growth in 33 years.
“America clearly cannot afford the higher taxes, increased regulation, and additional federal intrusion that Hillary Clinton wants to force on the country. We’ve tried those top-down policies under President Obama, and his economy is leaving the middle class behind. Instead, we need to empower workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses with pro-growth policies so that they can innovate, expand, and ultimately create good jobs with higher wages. That’s what will create real opportunity for millions of our fellow Americans, and that’s what a Republican president will pursue."
