June 1, 2018

Chart of the Day: Net New Jobs in May

Thursday is evil dex day, which means I’ve been up all night. And you’re the winner! The BLS releases jobs numbers at 8:30 am, but I’m on the West Coast and I don’t roll out of bed until several hours after that. That means my take is usually dated before I even put it up. But not today: I’m awake and ready to give you the fresh take you need to start your day. Here we go:

The American economy gained 223,000 jobs last month. We need 90,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth, which means that net job growth clocked in at 133,000 jobs. The headline unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, but unlike last month this wasn’t due to people dropping out of the labor force. It was almost entirely due to lots of people getting jobs.

Wages of production and nonsupervisory workers were up at an annualized rate of 3.9 percent. With overall inflation running at about 2.4 percent, that’s a significant increase.

This is a very strong jobs report and it makes up for the disappointing April report. Our economic expansion appears to still be on track.

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Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

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