Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Department of Labor released the employment situation for December, with 148,000 jobs added, an unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1 percent, and wage growth of 2.5 percent over the last year. Michael Madowitz, economist at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announcing today that the U.S. economy added 148,000 jobs, the last jobs report of 2017 represents a year of job growth that was solid but slower than the previous four years—when job growth was between 2.24 million and 2.99 million annually. In contrast to the economy that greeted the last presidential transition—when the U.S. economy was losing more than 4 million jobs a year—Trump inherited an economy consistently adding more than 2 million jobs a year.
After the longest expansion in modern history, workers are seeing wage gains, albeit modest ones. But it is clear that any net improvement in the standard of living of most workers has occurred in spite of—not because of—policy actions taken by the administration. By undermining the Affordable Care Act, delaying overtime pay protections for millions of workers, and a host of less visible actions, the administration has shown a cavalier disregard for working families.
Related resource: The State of the U.S. Labor Market: Pre-December 2017 Jobs Release by Gregg Gelzinis and Michael Madowitz
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