Payrolls surge by 304,000, smashing estimates despite government shutdown

Key Points

Job growth in January shattered expectations, with nonfarm payrolls surging by 304,000, the Labor Department says.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected payrolls to rise by 170,000.

There were revisions. December’s big initially reported gain of 312,000 was knocked all the way down to 222,000, while November’s rose from 176,000 to 196,000.

The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4 percent, a level where it had last been in June, a likely effect of the shutdown, according to the department.

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chuckiechan said:

Much of China's trade losses are moving to other Asian markets rather than to the USA, so we still have work to do to get competitive in Asia. That's a tough nut to crack as many have copied Chinese tech that was originally stolen from the US.

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In the eight years before I took office, we lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs. They were leaving. People were talking about the fact that you needed a magic wand; you’ll never bring them back. You remember the previous administration, he said that they said — he said — they all said you needed a magic wand; manufacturing jobs were over. I guess you people heard that too. It was a little bit discouraging.

And since the election, we’ve gained more than 500,000 jobs — and that number is going to be very soon to 700,000 jobs — all in the manufacturing world, which is a beautiful world, a high-paying world, and very important for our country.

Last year, we saw the biggest increase in manufacturing employment in more than 20 years. Early in my presidency, I issued an executive order directing the federal government to live by two very crucial rules: Buy American and hire American. And I think that sounds appropriate. Remember in the old days? It was not that. It was almost the opposite. You’d say, “Where are they coming from?”

Thanks to my executive order and a really great group of people, we have increased reliance on American-made goods very, very substantially. Federal agencies are now spending an additional $24 billion on American-made products instead of going to other countries or foreign-made products.

Federal spending on foreign goods is now the lowest it’s been in more than 10 years, and it’s going down very substantially. And, by the way, we don’t get treated great by many countries in terms of our trade deals, and that’s changing rapidly. But we are now looking out a little bit for ourselves and it’s about time.

https://publicpool.kinja.com/subject-remarks-by-president-trump-at-signing-of-execu-1832243024

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tres borrachos said:

So I guess the job numbers aren't fake or phony, even though Trump told us 19 times that they were?

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trixare4kids said:

Don't let President Trump ruin another of your days... Embrace the good news, 304,000 jobs were added last month! Economists had only expected a gain of about 172,000.
What do you have to say about the subject of this thread? Our booming economy?

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chuckiechan said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/01/nonfarm-payrolls-january-2019.html



Americans are getting back to work as industry expands. The down side is wage rates lagged partly because there is so much labor out there in the lower skilled areas. More advanced skill industries are once again training new hires.

Excess labor is good for the employer, bad for the employee, but training benefits both. For the treasury, any job growth is a benefit because it reduces social costs.

Much of China's trade losses are moving to other Asian markets rather than to the USA, so we still have work to do to get competitive in Asia. That's a tough nut to crack as many have copied Chinese tech that was originally stolen from the US. So improvement will be gradual as we invent the future in competition with China.

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tres borrachos said:

December’s big initially reported gain of 312,000 was knocked all the way down to 222,000

Interesting.

The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4 percent

So the unemployment rate ticked up. Is that good?

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chuckiechan said:

Seasonal layoff's after Christmas. Happens every year. I know you know that.

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tres borrachos said:

So they weren't permanent jobs, just part time jobs. I thought that was one of the rubs against Obama. I guess not.

By the way, that isn't actually what happened.

Glad to know that you think Trump was lying all those 19 times he said we are not to believe the unemployment numbers.

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chuckiechan said:

I think you should go out and buy Chinese stuff just to spite Trump.

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Mycroft said:

And American manufacturing...that thing that Obama and his people told us was never coming back (unless someone had a magic wand) continues to skyrocket.

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