Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Jobs, Pay Show Solid Gains in Trump's First Full Month (bloomberg.com)
Two anonymous reader share a Bloomberg report: U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month on outsized gains in construction and manufacturing while wage growth picked up, as the labor market continued its steady improvement in the new year. The 235,000 increase followed a 238,000 rise in January that was more than previously estimated, the best back-to-back rise since July, a Labor Department report showed Friday in Washington. The unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent, and wages grew 2.8 percent from February 2016. While unseasonably warm weather may have boosted the payrolls count, the data represent President Donald Trump's first full month in office and coincide with a surge in economic optimism following his election victory.
I mean he hasn't actually implemented any policies but let's go ahead and give him credit....
Still, it's "Trump!" and that'll be good for several hundred posts... I guess that's the whole point, ennit?
None of that has a single thing to do with Trump. Hell, there's things that Obama did in his first term that we'll just start seeing the effects of now. It's always been that way, the wheels turn slowly enough that it takes years for effects to become evident.
So what exactly did the US Government do in that first month to create all those jobs? After all, if you can implement policy on day one and see that translate into an economic boost within a month, that is some good policy that governments would want to imitate all over the world.
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
Investors must have been absolutely *terrified* for the past 8 years, running the stock market up to record levels.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
So what exactly did the US Government do in that first month to create all those jobs?
It's not what they did, it's what they promised to do - which is primarily to lower the absurdly high U.S. corporate tax rate.
Mind you, large corporations are already paying much less than the top rate. But here's the secret - all of us small and medium sized businesses without a building full of accountants WERE paying that top rate, or close to it. So the promise to lower that rate helps improve hiring from the large majority of job creation, small to medium sized businesses.... the rate lowering won't make life much different for the very largest corps since they were not paying a very high rate anyway.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Jobs are up. Stock market is up. Consumer confidence is up. Precious metals are down.
For the eighth year in a row. Thanks, Obama!
If you really think the economy is about to hit the fan, then you can make a fortune by betting against the experts.
"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
I love the dumb fucks who think people who have been screwed are voting against their best interests if they don't vote Democrat. Democrats aren't going to do shit for these people. This is why they've stopped fucking voting for Democrats.
Way to put up some strawman arguments, shoot them down, and call everyone who disagrees with you dumb fucks. This may be the least insightful comment yet for this article.
No proposed solution to our economic problems will solve everything, and claiming Democratic voters think otherwise is asinine. Re-education of workers helps displaced workers, but it won't work for everyone. Relocating to areas with more jobs helps displaced workers, but it won't work for every family dynamic. Improved safety net systems helps those who fall through the cracks, but it can't be the solution for everyone. More equitable primary, secondary, and post-secondary education will also help, but it won't be enough for everyone. We need all of this and more to solve our problems.
On the other hand, the are almost literally no programs suggested by the Republican platform which will help the working class. Gutting public schooling won't help, reducing financial assistance for health care won't help, economic protectionism won't help, reduced clean air and water regulations won't help, the list goes on and on.
The Democratic party is far from perfect, and has been almost as disastrous for the working class as the Republican party has been. Emphasis on almost though, since after you strip away false rhetoric the Republican platform is nothing but the party of the wealthy elite.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
The way you wrote that link to your google search is one way to look at the situation, but its incredibly 3rd grade and full of obvious emotional baggage unrelated to reality and seems to be written by someone with an axe to grind and who doesn't mind obscuring the facts.
The fact is this: The natural repercussions of implementing that law led to lower hiring. This is not punishment of Obama by businesses. It is merely a natural outcome of what happens when you change regulations to this new state. Now, implementing these regulations could be considered punishment for the people they adversely affect, namely the labor pool, but the blame of that lands squarely on the shoulders of those who created the underlying structure. Namely, those who wrote the law and implemented it.
Blaming "business" for some kind of concerted antagonistic action is just plain fucking stupid. Businesses follow the money and play by the rules that are handed down to them by government. If you don't like how a new law has changed how the majority of businesses operate, look at how the law was written.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
My issue is that nobody can draw even the slightest correlation between any policy move by Trump and these job gains. The idea that businesses are just hiring extra people because they have "faith in the future" is BS, you hire because you have need... need that is generated by demand for your product or service which grows over years, not overnight
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
the Republican platform is nothing but the party of the wealthy elite
As a lifelong Republican, I'd like to point out that Trump's electoral victory - achieved against the streneous efforts of the GOP hardliners and the majority of GOP congressmen - may well incidate that the average conservative voter seems to agree with you. That Bernie got as far as he did against the polished, powerful Clinton machine (so powerful that she forced the Democratic party leadership to cut a deal with her so she'd stop challenging Obama's run for nomination,)and the DNP apparatus, indicates that the left wing is tired of their elitists too.
Look for common ground - right now, I think you're likely to find it.