While many pundits focus their energy on arguing about elusive claims of Russian involvement in his victory last November, or what the Trump Administration would call distraction tactics by political opponents, there are others looking at hard numbers; the fact.
Per MarketWatch, these 9 charts describe how the economy is responding so far since President Donald J. Trump took over the Oval Office.
No speculation. No opinions. Just the numbers.
Since the beginning of the year there’s been a total of 863,000 jobs created. Four of the last six months has seen more than 200,000 new jobs. Unemployment was down to 4.3 percent as of May, according to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL).
That’s the lowest the unemployment rate has been since 2001. Unstated in these charts is the fact that some 6 million jobs are waiting to be filled.
Wages have risen around a 2.3 percent increase since the start of the year.
The stock market has seen a significant 10.5 percent increase. That suggests investor confidence, and a recovering, growing economy.
Inflation is down from the start of the year. President Trump’s administration has been at 2.2 percent six months in. GDP is growing steadily.
Looking at the labor force participation, it was at 62.9 percent as of June 2017. The labor participation rate was slightly higher at 63.5 percent during former President Obama’s term.
The current trade deficit sits at $45.9 billion – and has fluctuated some, both rising and falling again slightly, since the beginning of the year.
Surprisingly, home ownership has risen modestly since the start of the year. It was at 63.9 percent halfway into the year. That often reflects consumer confidence, which previous Daily Business News reports have confirmed. Builder confidence is up overall. So too are housing starts, which obviously follows the rising rate.
MarketWatch decided to look at student loan debt too, which sits at a hefty $1.4 trillion. That number has been continuously rising for years.
Even that tilting left-of-center media source provided facts that indicated overall economic progress. # # (News)
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