Six Million More Americans Employed Since December 2016

From December 2016 through September 2019, the U.S. economy has added approximately six million jobs.

Key Takeaways:

  • White women have experienced the largest number of labor force gains over this period
  • Overall, about 3.2 million of these labor force gains have been among women while 2.7 million have been by men.

Analysis:

Projected job gains under “official” government estimates made in 2016 were for average job gains of just under 90,000 per month from 2016-2026.

In fact, in the 33 months since December 2016, nearly 180,000 jobs have been added in every month, roughly twice as much as had been projected.  This is a sure sign that the current economic and jobs boom was unexpected at the time. 

In the 2006-16 period higher taxes and increased regulation drove participation down.  While the population increased one percent a year, the labor force only increased by half a percent.  The analysts in 2016 thought this trend would continue and so thought that employment would go up by 0.7 percent while the population rose 1.3 percent.

 In fact, while the population has been growing only 0.9 percent from last year, employment has been growing by 1.3 percent a year.  This means that the better economy and rising wages have convinced  a bigger proportion of the working age population to come to work and has provided jobs for them.