As The New York Times publishes narcissistic manifestos from disgruntled Trump admin officials and Sen. Cory Booker imagines himself as “Spartacus,” the U.S. economy under President Trump added 201,000 new jobs in the month of August.
According to CNBC, August saw the “biggest increase of the economic recovery,” with payroll gains beating expectations and unemployment falling to 3.9%, a generational low.
With the highest wage growth since April 2009, the average hourly earnings exceeded expectations of economists by substantial margins. It was originally predicted that earnings would rise 2.7% with payrolls increasing by 191,000; the numbers, however, clocked in at 2.9% with nonfarm payrolls growing by 201,000.
Professional and business services were the largest contributors to job gains at 53,000. Health care came in second at 33,000, trailed closely by wholesale trade at 22,000. Transportation and warehousing contributed 20,000 to the job gains total. Mining jobs also saw a spike at 6,000, a profession that has steadily added 104,000 positions since October 2016. Construction grew by 23,000. Manufacturing lost 3,000 positions.
CNBC notes that not all the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were good: “Counts for the two previous months were lowered by 50,000 – from 248,000 to 208,000 in June and from 157,000 to 147,000 in July.” Even with those downgrades, however, August’s employment numbers slightly exceeded “the average monthly gains of 196,000 over the past 12 months.”