Mo Brooks highlights November jobs report – 3.7% unemployment, bigger paychecks

Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-5) on Friday highlighted what he viewed, in context, as a “very good” Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)  November jobs report.

In a press release, Brooks said, “The November Jobs Report is very good in the context of two troubling events: the threatened return of socialist, anti-growth policies of Democrats who have captured the House of Representatives and rising interest rates (caused by Federal Reserve hikes coupled with America’s dangerous deficits straining credit markets). These combined threats undermine the economic confidence of job creators which, in turn, risk causing adverse impacts on America’s economy.”

“Despite threatened socialist policies and rising interest rates, in November, America’s economy added 155,000 new jobs, average hourly income continued to grow at a 3.1% annualized rate, and unemployment remained steady at the 50-year low rate of 3.7%— all welcome news for American workers,” Brooks continued. “I am very pleased that Americans are personally benefitting from the tax cuts and deregulation policies that spurred 2018 to be America’s strongest growth rate in over a decade!”

Key takeaways from the jobs report are:

• America’s economy added 155,000 new, nonfarm payroll jobs in November.
• America’s November unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, a year-to-year improvement of 0.4 percentage points over the 4.1 percent unemployment rate of November 2017.
• Over the past year, the average weekly earnings for all non-farm American workers increased by 0.2 percent, or six cents (to $27.35/hour). That is an 81 cent improvement in hourly wages over the past year.
• African-American unemployment fell by 0.3 percentage points, to 5.9 percent, which is the all-time record low unemployment rate for African-Americans.
• Asian-American unemployment fell from 3.2 percent to 2.7 percent.
• Caucasian-American unemployment rose from 3.3 percent to 3.4 percent.
• Hispanic-American unemployment rose from 4.4 percent to 4.5 percent.
• The labor participation rate remained unchanged at 62.9 percent.
• The long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or more), declined by 120,000 to 1.3 million.

Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn