President Joe Biden touted May’s jobs report, which added many more employees to the workforce than expected, but Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) says that the numbers are “distorted.”
May saw nearly 340,000 workers added to the economy while the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent. And while Biden bragged Friday was “a good day for the American economy and American workers” and “that the unemployment rate has been under 4 percent for 16 months in a row,” Sen. Scott asserted the numbers are disingenuous.
Breitbart News caught up with Scott for an exclusive interview at Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) annual Roast and Ride in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, where he expressed that the Labor Department’s unemployment figures “excludes the long-term unemployed, who are no longer looking for work.”
“Millions and millions of Americans have left the workforce entirely,” Scott explained. “We have the lowest percentage of working-age men working in America today. So when you look at those numbers, they are distorted by the fact that people no longer look for work, so they’re not even included in the employment numbers.”
Scott noted that “16% inflation led to ten consecutive rate increases, so the mortgage on a home today is about 50% higher than it was just 18 months ago for the same value of your home.”
“Those devastating impacts means that the average family in America today, they’re spending $500 more every month for the exact same thing they could get a year ago, year and a half ago,” he added.
As Breitbart News Economy Editor John Carney contended in Friday’s Breitbart Business Digest, the unexpected influx of jobs puts the Federal Reserve in yet another difficult position where it should raise rates for the eleventh consecutive time following its forthcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
Carney noted it had “been clear” Chairman Jerome Powell and others at the Fed had aimed to pause rate hikes this month, but the numbers should foil those desires:
What’s more, job growth accelerated, indicating rising demand for workers. The already very hot jobs figures from the prior two months were also revised up by a total of 93,000.
Do not forget that jobless claims have gone sideways for the past six weeks or so, indicating that businesses are no longer shedding workers at an accelerating pace. Job openings jumped back above 10.1 million in the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Construction spending increased. Inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditure price index, moved up, with both headline and core inflation increasing on a month-over-month and a year-over-year basis.
If the Fed is truly data dependent, it will hike at the next meeting. A failure to hike will cast doubt on the credibility of the Fed’s commitment to making policy based on incoming data.
The Federal Reserve’s next meeting takes place on June 13-14.
