By Megan Henney | FOXBusiness
The U.S. economy added 1.4 million jobs in
August as the unemployment rate unexpectedly tumbled, indicating the
nation's labor market is continuing a slow but steady recovery from
the coronavirus pandemic.
The Labor Department's payroll report
released Friday showed the jobless rate fell sharply to 8.4%, down from
10.2% in June and a peak of 14.7% in April. It marks the first time
since March that unemployment has been below 10%.
Economists surveyed by Refinitiv
expected the report to show that unemployment dropped to 9.8% and the
economy added 1.4 million jobs. It's well below the combined 7.5 million jobs
added in May and June before hiring cooled in July, with growth of just 1.9
million positions.
“We are still moving in the right direction
and the pace of the jobs recovery seems to have picked up, but it still looks
like it will take a while – and likely a vaccine – before we get back close to
where we were at the beginning of this year,” said Tony Bedikian, head of
global markets at Citizens Bank. “We continue to be optimistic that the economy
has turned a corner and that we’ll continue to see steady progress.”
Still, joblessness remains historically high.
The unemployment rate sat at 3.5% in February, a half-century low, before
the crisis began.
Government hiring helped boost the figure,
with employment increasing by 344,000 in August -- accounting for one-fourth of
the total gains. The increase stemmed largely from the federal government's
addition of 238,000 temporary Census workers. Despite fears about budget
shortfalls, local governments hired 95,000 employees last month.
Other notable gains came from retail, which
added 249,000 new jobs, and professional and business services, which brought
on 197,000 workers. Leisure and hospitality, the hardest-hit sector during the
pandemic, filled 174,000 positions, a majority of which stemmed from bars
and restaurants.
Education and health services jobs jumped by
147,000, and transportation rose by 78,000. Financial activities
increased by 36,000, manufacturing rose by 29,000 and wholesale trade was
up by 14,000.
The number of Americans
on furlough also plunged: 24.2 million people who said they not
working because their employer either closed or lost business as a result of
COVID-19, down from 31.3 million in July.
Over the past four months, the economy
has added back about half of the 22 million jobs it lost during the pandemic,
data show. There are still 11.5 million more out-of-work Americans than in
February.
The report comes amid a month-long deadlock
between White House officials and Democratic leaders over another round of
emergency relief for workers and businesses. Economists said the
better-than-expected report should not reduce the urgency in Congress to
approve more aid.
"With the national unemployment rate
still elevated, and with New York and Los Angeles recently suffering through
jobless rates above 16%, the urgency of passing another round of federal relief
legislation hasn’t lifted in Washington," said Mark Hamrick, a
Bankrate.com senior economic analyst. "While some elected officials
may be focused on the election now 60 days away, their responsibility to serve
the broader part of the American people hasn’t been excused."
________________
IN
OTHER NEWS
The Atlantic Peddles Total Fake News to Smear
Trump and Torpedo His Relationship with the Military
By Matt Vespa | Townhall.com
Source: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
I mean, are they this
desperate? Is the liberal media that nervous about Trump winning again? Because
it would seem that they are throwing all the things against the wall to slow
the momentum. The Atlantic is the first batter up, peddling a
totally unverifiable story that President Trump has mocked and denigrated those
who have served and died for this country. Yeah, they actually thought this
would stick. The U.S. Military loves Trump, by the way. I don’t really see the
point behind this story other than some pathetic attempt to smear the man yet
again. Oh, and we have the anonymous sources, those shadowy folks with
“firsthand knowledge.”
Right, find me a career
bureaucrat in this town that loves Trump. The whole town hates him. Run with a
rumor and find several people who hate Trump’s guts to ‘verify’ it. It’s as
easy as scooping up baitfish in a tank.
If we’re going by this shoddy
standard, then several people told me that Joe Biden is dead and being
impersonated by a body double. They have firsthand knowledge. That’s what they
told me, so it’s totally true. Also, the British Royal Family is really
reptilian shape-shifting humanoids. We’re dealing with clowns.
When President Donald Trump
canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he
blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t
fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was
true.
Trump rejected the idea of the
visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and
because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according
to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a
conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit,
Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a
separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800
marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
How many conspiracy theories
and hoaxes have the liberal media fallen for in the past four years? First,
there was Trump-Russia collusion, which was busted like a pinata. Then, the
covert plot to destroy the US Postal Service, which the Left still thinks is a
thing. Then, there’s the ‘Trump had a stroke’ story. It goes on and on, and
these morons wonder why their trust with the American people is in the toilet.
Here’s the thing. How about y’all stop lying. Then again, we all know why you
keep getting faces full of buckshot. You don’t care. You’ve never cared.
Because at the end of the day, you’re all just Democratic operatives
masquerading as reporters. If you were just honest about your biases, then this
war would end, but your attacks on Republicans would seem less credible, right?
I mean, they already are, but there’s a shine to it when it’s printed on The
New York Times or in this case, The Atlantic.
Also, let's not forget that
this same publication ran with a fake news story about a police shooting this
summer. Have we forgotten that, and we're supposed to believe this crackpot
story? Nope.
