“The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell to more than a 49-year low last week, but the drop likely overstates the health of the labor market as claims for several states including California were estimated,” Reuters reports. “Still, labor market conditions remain strong, which for now should help to temper fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth.”
“Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 199,000 for the week ended Jan. 19, the lowest level since mid-November in 1969 when 197,000 applications were recorded, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised lower to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported,” Reuters reports. “The Labor Department said claims for California, Kansas, North Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Hawaii were estimated last week because of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.”
“The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 5,500 to 215,000 last week,” Reuters reports. “The jobless rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.9 percent in December as strong labor market conditions attracted some unemployed people back into the labor force.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, strong U.S. employment benefits Apple as the Americas are by far Apple’s largest market. The more people with disposable income to spend on things like new Macs, iPad, iPhones, Apple Music and more, the better it is for Apple,
Not all jobs are created equal. People unhappy with the quality of jobs, wages, and jobs growth over the last decade cannot point to any data showing the trend has improved under Trump:
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Despite the self-serving administration putting piles of cash in corporate coffers (which were already flush with cash), rate of employment growth has not changed, and wage growth has only now started to tick upward. But the black clouds are forming because everything else Trump has done as president has almost perfectly designed to derail what should be a strong economy.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trumps-tariffs-didnt-bring-back-all-those-factory-jobs-he-promised-2019-01-24
“Looking at trade data, the four biggest sources of the U.S.-China merchandise trade deficit are cell phones, toys, furniture, and apparel. U.S. apparel makers have actually cut 5,300 jobs in the last year, to 110,600. Furniture makers cut 1,500, to 390,700.”
As you well know, there is no consumer cell phone manufacturing in the Americas — Apple outsourced that to China just like every other major US company hellbent on keeping its executives compensated at a minimum of 400 times what the line worker takes in. Apple instead has hired part-time retail employees, which by and large appear to have meagre technical training, no real prospects for advancement, and poor benefits. Just like every other US retailer.
With the juvenile obstinate stupid federal employee hostage taking, Trump just torpedoed US businesses. Defense contractors, automobile manufacturers, aviation businesses, anyone who works with the federal government in any capacity is all losing business to the tune of $billions. Look for that in next quarter’s numbers, and be sure to thank this feckless executive.
I might have a word of respect from Trump if he had actually delivered on any of his outlandish campaign promises, but HE HAS NOT. Wake up people, Trump is the sideshow smoke and mirrors. The thieves in his administration are lining their pockets and gerrymandering every rule for their personal gain while the working citizen in the US has been fed nothing but an endless stream of bald faced lies.
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” he said in 2015. “I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.” – Lying Candidate Donald J. Trump, before demanding taxpayers blow > $5 billion on a partial fence that any human could drive around, tunnel under, and throw stuff over. So to make America safer, what does the asshat do? HE PUT BORDER SECURITY OFFICERS OUT OF WORK.
https://theweek.com/articles/811923/trumps-border-wall-broken-promise
“The border wall sums up how Trump has approached the presidency in general: He had a bad idea, failed to execute it properly, and now threatens to throw a tantrum if he doesn’t get his way.”
To add to the graph above: Does anyone really need any more proof to show that trickle down doesn’t actually work in practice? Making the rich richer is not a reliable way to reward innovation and business creation from all citizens from all classes in all regions. Old Mother Reagan’s tax games (he revised rates up and down several times) resulted in job losses, not gains. Anyone with a brain should be able to see that international relations are by far the biggest influence on jobs in the US.
post WW2 the US enjoyed a golden era that it may never see again – at least not until other nations view the US as a benevolent superpower instead of a self-serving cash extraction racket.
the ’73 oil embargo had long lasting economic destruction which was actually recovered BEFORE Reagan set foot in offiice. Reagan actually harmed job creation with his trickle down.
the ’92 Gulf War had a short positive impact before plateauing
Harder to see but still powerful are the trade deals with Commie China which, didn’t so much open up the Chinese market to US export that give China all the tech it needed to sabotage US companies. Every western corporation fell for the bait of cheap labor. To this day, Chinese corruption has muted job growth in the west and killed many consumer manufacturing industries in the US. Special thanks to Tricky Dick and Slick Willy Clinton.
the 2001 terror attack in NYC has led to a closing of minds and borders as fear and cynicism are now the dominant global attitudes. Job growth plummeted under Little Shrub Bush.
In 2009, that “Hopey Changey” attitude actually did yield consistent positive employment gains because the positive demeanor of the US president actually did open up business opportunities.
in 2017, Trump promised everything would be great. But his job growth rate was less than Obama’s first year and the Trump Economy is sputtering.
It’s all there in the federal data — sorry if your Orange hero is too stupid to read it and too corrupt to pay the federal workers who publish this data.
U.S. employers added jobs at a robust pace in December, and wages posted their biggest full-year gain in a decade…
Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy – The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 4, 2019
Factchecker: how about inflation? Interesting how you trumpanzees choose to report half the story.
Raises – inflation- lost business due to tariffs = no improvement for many.
And you ignored Mike’s valid point that Trump’s goosing of the economy with a temporary tax cut was all debt-financed. Taxpayers will have to pay that back, at a higher rate of interest in the future. That is stupid fiscal mgmt.
Getting nervous little Mikey … neurosis blooming ?
You are an absolute joke, someone who cant face reality even if it flat slaps u in the face …can you?!
If it does not conform to/suit your fanatical, dogmatic, misguided, indoctrinated existence, it cant possibly be valid ha ?
Wow,, just a massive wow.
Such is the life of a blind fanatic!
But you are not alone Mikey… . If its of any consolation !?
Headline: TRUMP CAVES
Certainly GREAT news for the unemployed, increase in tax base from workers, helping Apple and other companies when more workers have disposable income to spend and last but not least — CREDIT to President Donald J. Trump for his inspiration, tax cuts, executive orders and policies that have UNLEASHED the economy.
Trump HATERS in three…two…one…
Still cheerleading for the most incompetent president ever, eh Goeb?
“increase in tax base from workers” — how about you post proof of that???
Slashing corporate taxes didn’t lead to more plant openings. More people working more part time dead-end gigs as baristas and Uber drivers does NOT increase the tax base, it merely shows what lack of training the US educational system and US companies have allowed. The reckless Trump trickle down tax policy balloons the federal debt that will have to be paid at MUCH higher rates when Trump is out of office!!!!!!!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/under-donald-trump-national-debt-tops-21-trillion-for-first-time-ever/
As for disposable income — as you well know, that’s entirely at risk as Trump blows up the economy with trade wars and government shutdowns. Now with 2 missed paychecks, thousands of federal employees are relying on charity to survive. If that’s not executive mismanagement, what is?
A chimpanzee would have achieved superior long-lasting economic prosperity for US citizens than this bozo.
Sorry the most incompetent empty suit president left office 2 yrs ago. And it was the last guy that spent 10 trillion more than we took in 8 yrs, thats more than all presidents combined before him. So yes a chimpanzee could have done a way better job than utter disaster the last guy was. Thank God we didn’t get Hitlary.
@ steiner:
the $10 trillion was spent by Bush on 2 foreign wars and total lack of banking regulation. Obama merely brought it to daylight by moving it from Bush’s special off-the books accounting to a budget line item. Obama then proceeded to deliver 7 years of slow but constant growth. Not great, but way better than a Great Depression that libertarian & incompetent republicans are famous for starting.
I don’t have any friends who voted for Hillary, but she couldn’t have possibly done worse than Trump. The nouveau extremist right wing rethuglicans now in power have had 40 years to “lock her up” and they just couldn’t manage to do it. The best they could do was chant accusations at pep rallies while ignoring identical shortcomings in every one of its candidates and prior administrations, right down to email server management shortcomings. Clinton used Macs at least. Trump’s campaign was an insecure Windows XP server.
And personally, Trump is the scum of the earth with a long but poorly documented history of unethical behavior, sexism, financial corruption, foreign entanglements, lies, deceits, sham businesses and completely fraudulent “charities”, stiffing of contractors, swindling his own family, paying light fines only after being sued by business associates, then declaring bankruptcy to avoid real penalties. Trump has enough dirt on his hands that it’s almost certain he’ll be paying fines or jail time for his previously undisclosed business dealings in and out of office. Mercer money and dirty lawyers can protect Trump’s tax evasion and corruption for only so long.
You may not like Obama, but he didn’t cause you or your business any irreparable harm. Trump does, because that’s what he has always done. When history has the final word, people will see that Obama made minor mistakes but got the big stuff right, and of course was held back by 7 years of McConnell’s partisan self-serving obstructionism (as admitted by McConnell publicly). Trump will go down in history as the creator of the bigliest federal debt since GW Bush, perhaps the biggest federal debt ever if as it appears today the trade implosion and federal lockout totally destroy the positive economic momentum that Obama handed to him.
Show me the data how trickle down economics works again…. all Trump has done is enriched himself and his corporate friends at YOUR expense, putting the tab on government books that you will not be able to audit for years because, ta da, Trump FIRED the loyal federal workers who track economic data including the debt Trump policies have accelerated.
Are there any fiscally responsible people left in the US?
U.S. employers added jobs at a robust pace in December, and wages posted their biggest full-year gain in a decade…
Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy – The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 4, 2019
Could not agree more about the most incompetent empty suit and economic clueless president EVER the Don rescued us from…
Dont you have that right !!!!
Yawn…
It’s worked out great for me and my employees!!!! Were making tons of money
And….will he/won’t he…uh…yes! Slavish Sycophant Lapdog GoeB posts more repetitive crap from the #desert_of_denial where the dumbass echo chamber smothers facts and valid commentary with the stain of sociopathic delusion.
2019 is likely a year like no other in history. I’m looking forward to the stuck-pig squeals when your world is upended. Wake up and smell the coffee…this particular anti-democratic experiment, fuelled by deception, illegal funds and otherwise empty-vessel idolatry, has utterly failed to deliver on any of his major campaign unicorn promises whilst driving a divisive wedge into everyday lives, politics and world order. All whilst actively shunning the advice of scientists, data analysts and his own government’s departmental expert’s reports and recommendations regarding climate change. That’s about as un-American as possible in my view.
@ Gotcha
“Slavish Sycophant Lapdog GoeB”
Beats Gotcha being a TXUser sycophant Lapdog. You just can’t let that return characterization go.
Oh, did I neglect to tell you I could not care LESS…
Feeble reply much?
Of course you don’t care – part and parcel of being an un-American divisive zealot which requires selfishness, unsociability and scant regard for your fellow man or woman.
As for your fearless leader, does : Shutdown. ‘Cave’man. Trump. sound good to you? What a wimp!
Job numbers are BS, and nothing but.
Un/under-employed rule and dropped off the list.
I miss Obama…the roads were way emptier when he was president. Trump has caused way to much traffic, by increasing the availability of jobs.
1969.
You’re welcome.
#MAGA
Yeah baby!…
Hey what happened to next 2018?
MAGA!
“Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”
Good job President Trump. Jobs everywhere! I have three of them.
Thank you President Obama and your Kenyan influence.
Paying jobs since then, is another matter, just ask government workers.
I will give Trump credit for ushering a whole new era of volunteerism…. or is it slavery, just well marketed?
I see a few Trump Derangement Syndrome people still commenting. Please, go hang out at Obummer’s Wiki page, where all the bad things he did get deleted.
Yes indeed and blind Mike by word count tops the list…
If an unemployed worker does not register for benefits weekly they are dropped from the rolls. Benefits are capped and tens of millions are no longer registering or getting benefits. That does not make them employed- just not counted.
Trumplethinkskin’s fraud economy will prove as big a failure as his political theater shutdown prior to his orchiectomy by Dr Pelosi.
Where are the Pesos, Donnie?
I don’t care who you voted for, if you get out there and do your job well you’ll be rewarded. If you bitch and moan and blame Trump or Obama or whoever you’re going to be living in your moms basement the rest of your life. The only people I know that don’t have jobs are bums that don’t have any ambitions.