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The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that a record 154,430,000 people were employed in January, a gain of 309,000 from December. The number of employed Americans has broken seven records since Donald Trump took office. The nation’s unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent for a fourth straight month in January, but the number of Americans not in the labor force also set a new record at 95,665,000 – the fourth such record since Trump took office. In January, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 256,780,000. Of those, 161,115,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 161,115,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 62.7 percent of the 256,780,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population. The labor force participation rate has been stuck at 62.7 percent for four straight months.
Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall told Congress last week that the nation's labor supply is growing slowly because of the aging population. In other positive news, wages are rising: In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents to $26.74, following an 11-cent gain in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 75 cents, or 2.9 percent. And the economy added a strong 200,000 jobs last month. After revisions for the December and November jobs-added totals, job gains have averaged 192,000 over the last 3 months. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Blacks increased to 7.7 percent in January, up from last month's record low of 6.8 percent; and the rate for Whites edged down to 3.5 percent. The jobless rates for adult men (3.9 percent), adult women (3.6 percent), teenagers (13.9 percent), Asians (3.0 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent) showed little change.
Trump expects ‘numbers that get even better’
“Already since the election, we've created 2.4 million jobs,” President Trump told Republicans gathered in West Virginia on Thursday. "That's unthinkable. And that doesn't include all of the things that are happening. You're going to see numbers that get even better. “The stock market has added more than $8 trillion in new wealth. Unemployment claims are at a 45-year low, which is something. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.
African-American and Hispanic unemployment have both reached the lowest levels ever recorded. That's something very, very special.” Trump noted that upon hearing that news at the State of the Union speech, “There was zero movement from the Democrats. They sat there stone cold, no smile, no applause. You would've thought that on that one, they would've sort of at least clapped a little bit. “Which tells you perhaps they'd rather see us not do well than see our country do great, and that's not good. That's not good.”
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