Analysis: The very good news buried in an otherwise mediocre jobs report
People attend the Executive Branch Job Fair hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on June 15. By Philip Bump Philip Bump National correspondent focused largely on the numbers behind politics Email Bio Follow March 8 at 10:33 AM On its surface, the Department of Labor’s report on February employment may seem troubling. The country added only 20,000 jobs last month, well below what had been added in earlier months.
The above graph, showing a slow increase, is deceptive as a way to consider how the numbers have changed. So let’s instead look more directly at the change that’s occurred. From January 2008 to January 2018, hourly earnings increased by 26 percent, but earnings adjusted for inflation only increased by about 7 percent.
Why is this happening? President Trump would likely point to the December 2017 tax cuts, which was meant to boost wages by giving companies more money to invest in workers.
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