Last Friday, the August jobs report was published -- and despite some news accounts describing the results as "strong" or "reassuring," they were not. The jobs number itself was a clear miss, by tens of thousands, compared to what economists were expecting. Beyond that, we once again saw a dramatic downward revision of previous months' totals. Remember, just last month, the Labor Department revised US job growth over a full year span by more than 800,000 jobs. July also witnessed a weak report and negative revisions, then August followed suit. Taken together, the "miss" against projections last month, plus the "never mind" downward revisions for June and July added up to more than 100,000 fewer jobs, relative to market expectations and previous months' official stats.
In case you missed it, here's how I framed things just after the data was released late last week:
🚨 August jobs report = another miss, w/ lower than expected job creation. Last few months, including bad July numbers, revised down—again. Elevated unemployment rate remains. Full-time jobs way down, w/ part-time jobs driving anemic growth. Another contraction in manufacturing. https://t.co/PJcLlsWRHv
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 6, 2024
Between the negative gap from economists’ expectations, and the major downward revisions for June and July, this jobs report contains 105,000 fewer jobs than were expected/previously announced. https://t.co/z6xA1CqVlT
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 6, 2024
There's a reason why the latest New York Times/Siena poll we highlighted yesterday gave Donald Trump a dozen-plus-point lead on the economy, and why a heavy majority of Americans are looking for 'major change' from the Biden-Harris administration. Indeed, in that survey, nearly half (49 percent) said the US economy is in "poor" shape. The second-highest descriptor (28 percent) was "only fair." Just 23 percent of respondents called economic conditions "excellent" or "good." This rams up against Democratic messaging on the economy. Here's another nugget from the decidedly underwhelming jobs report:
Employment growth since Jun '23 has been 100% driven by net additions of part-time work; full-time jobs have been disappearing, and that trend continued in Aug: pic.twitter.com/v8RtnkBuoX
— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) September 6, 2024
People feel this. They fear recession. They know prices are up substantially -- 20 percent on average -- since Biden and Harris took office. Even some efforts by Harris-Walz allies to needle JD Vance for being "weird" or whatever have ended up backfiring. Tim "Jazz Hands" Walz, a strange serial liar, was trying to mock Vance for supposedly being awkward while ordering donuts. When one of Minnesota's Democrat Senators piled on, it led to this. Oops:
This takedown broke laws in multiple states pic.twitter.com/PcmbfIdWSc
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 5, 2024
"Mind your own damn business," Walz yells, having established a COVID snitch lines to pit neighbors against each other, while driving businesses under with his edicts (with others fleeing after he allowed Minneapolis to burn for days). Meanwhile, Vance is not only giving frequent interviews and taking many questions, he's delving deep into policy on social media:
It's hilarious how JD Vance dropped a whole policy manifesto in a Twitter reply and Kamala Harris can't describe one policy in this level of detail in a televised interview https://t.co/PZNQ2L9fFG
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 5, 2024
Harris and Walz avoid questions like the plague, and just this week established a policy page on their website, which broadly reads like vague, AI-generated pablum. Unfortunately for Harris, the many clips of her laying out ruinous, left-wing positions are not AI-generated. They're real, and they're recent, as Dave McCormick's Senate campaign in Pennsylvania continues to masterfully highlight:
Here are Kamala Harris and Bob Casey — in their own words — vowing to kill Pennsylvania energy jobs. pic.twitter.com/vLB98MtuCM
— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) September 7, 2024
Somewhat relatedly and just for fun, I'll leave you with this Los Angeles Times op/ed headline, which captures the arrogant Democrat-media mentality rather well:
Column: They say Democrats are to blame for all California's problems. But GOP is MIA https://t.co/rBDA1jWHhS
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 7, 2024
They've created a one-party state for themselves in California, which they are harming badly with their insane policies. With no Republicans within shouting distance of any real power, the cabal that runs the place is still looking around and pointing the finger of blame at the people they've worked hard to render entirely powerless. It's a more brazen and cartoonish version of the Democrats trying to pretend that the Biden-Harris administration never happened, and that the out-of-power party are the incumbents.
