The Republicans spent their first month as a majority in Congress trying to stop the president's first term achievements. |
First month since Republicans took control of Congress, I was expecting this to happen. With the Republicans wasting their time on passing bills such as the Keystone XL pipeline, the ban on taxpayer abortion, halting the president's executive order on immigration reform and the 59th repeal of Obamacare, a jobs bill is not likely going to pass.
With that being said, it's been reported that 257,000 jobs were added for the month of January and the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7%.
Of course, this is going to be challenged by the ney sayers who actually believe unemployment is 23% and 92 million are out of work. And gas prices are down because of fracking.
It's going to be a rough two years. |
CNBC reports that full-time workers surged, gaining 777,000 and numbering more than 120 million for the first time since July 2008. Their wages grew as well, with hourly earnings up 12 cents an hour, representing an annualized gain of 2.2 percent and the largest monthly gain in the economic recovery.
It was only the second time in the last 11 years that January's numbers beat Wall Street expectations and came amid a powerful run for nonfarm payrolls. Over the past three months, job creation has averaged 336,000, with upward revisions for both November and December, good for a total of just over one million during the span.
Gains came across the board, with retail leading the way in January with 46,000 new positions. Construction added 39,000, while health care grew 38,000.
The report could help ease some anxiety about the pace of growth, particularly in the wake of some mediocre economic reports to start the year.