CNN’s Romans: Participation Rate in Jobs Report an ‘Important Sign of Success’

Friday on CNN’s “New Day,” network chief business correspondent Christine Romans discussed the August jobs report, touting its overall numbers.

Romans admitted the jobless rate being at 3.7% “remains near a historical low” and that is the “important sign of success.”

“[T]he job market’s still marching forward, but at a slower pace: 130,000 net new jobs created and 25,000 or so of those were Census jobs — federal hiring. So, without the Census, you would have a little bit weaker job market than even we’re showing here,” Romans outlined. “Take a look at the jobless rate, 3.7%. This remains near a historic generational low. More than 500,000 people entered the labor market, so these months and months of decent job numbers are encouraging people to come back in. That is an important sign of success in the labor market right now. Business information services, big job gains there, again, health care, these have been driving parts of the economy really, health care and business information systems.”

Romans noted the disappointment with the lack of growth in the manufacturing sector, which she said was a result of the China trade tariffs.

“Here’s a disappointment, though,” she stated. “Manufacturing basically at a standstill. Only 3,000 jobs created there. And I want to really show you what this looks like longer term. This is what looks like a sputtering in American manufacturing. This month, only 3,000 jobs created, that’s far below last month, which is far below the average for the year. And really when you look at the last 12 months of manufacturing job creation, a significant slowdown from the prior year, so something is happening in manufacturing.”

Romans continued, “We know the manufacturing sector actually contracted in the most recent quarter for the first time in many years, in three or four years, and that is a danger zone to watch here. Even as the president’s own trade policies, by the way, were meant to favor manufacturing, manufacturing is stuttering here in part because of his tariffs and his tough talk strategy on China.”

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