The continuing weakness of the U.S. manufacturing sector and weak job growth are caused by “Clinton globalist policies,” said a Friday statement from Curtis Ellis, a senior economic adviser for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Ellis described the latest manufacturing and trade numbers as “horrible.”
The latest economic numbers from the past day paint a bleak picture. According to Friday’s report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the trade deficit increased to a monthly average of $42 billion for the three months ending in July. The continuing trade deficit is a drag on growth and kills jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report which was also released Friday shows the U.S. lost another 14,000 manufacturing jobs in August. Manufacturing jobs hit a new all-time low of 8.49 percent as a share of non-farm payrolls.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.4 in August. A reading under 50 means manufacturing activity is contracting. The U.S. manufacturing sector remains stagnant. This a direct result of the Clinton globalist policies that have sent U.S. jobs and industries overseas. Since Clinton’s NAFTA and China trade policies went into effect, the U.S. has lost over 4.5 million manufacturing jobs.
There are still far too many people involuntarily working at jobs for which they are overqualified but underpaid. There are also far too many people involuntarily working in part time jobs. When we count the 15.61 million Americans who’ve given up looking for work or are forced to take a part time job but want full time work, the real unemployment rate is 9.7%.
In addition to the 15.6 million Real Unemployed Persons at August 31, there were another 4.1 million workers who, while saying they want jobs, have not looked for work in the past twelve months. Solely because they haven’t looked, these workers are not included among the marginally attached workers; if included, August’s Real Unemployment Rate of 9.7% substantially increases to 11.9%. This is far higher than the 4.9% rate touted by the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration.
Another statement from the Trump campaign on Friday, written by adviser David Malpass, said the disappointing August jobs report “shows the stagnant Clinton-Obama economy fails to deliver the jobs Americans desperately need.”
Even the mainstream media is slowly beginning to admit the economic picture isn’t great.
CNN strained mightily to portray 151,000 new jobs as a “decent gain,” but it’s barely a “gain” at all, measured against the arrival of young Americans and new immigrants seeking jobs, which is why the official unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent, as CNN admitted in the very next paragraph of its report.
CNN also floated excuses about a slowdown in job growth, supposedly because the economy is nearing “full employment.” But as Ellis and Malpass pointed out, the bogus low unemployment figure only looks like it’s approaching “full employment” because the people who have dropped completely out of the workforce aren’t counted at all, nor is underemployment considered.
The cold, hard fact is that August job growth fell from 275,000 in July to 151,000 new jobs in August — far below the 180,000 new jobs that were expected.
Overall economic growth is tottering at 1 percent, with growing concern it may slide into a recession.
CNBC writes repeatedly of how August is a “volatile” and “difficult” month for job numbers, but that could mean the already disappointing totals could be revised down in the months ahead. Then we’ll hit the winter, which the media will declare unexpectedly cold to excuse slow economic growth.
The bar for “strong gains” has been set very low during the Obama years, and the economy still isn’t clearing that bar.
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