Friday’s strong jobs report smashed expectations and demonstrated that the economy and labor market are far stronger than the mainstream media suggests. The economy added 178,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent. Real wages rose again, increasing average American living standards.
After a rough February distorted by brutal weather across large parts of the country, the labor market has roared back. The naysayers who insisted that blip represented a crumbling economy were wrong, and the March data makes that plain.
Friday’s jobs report follows a strong ADP employment report on Wednesday that showed small businesses created 112,000 private-sector jobs in March. While the employment picture was more nuanced at bigger companies, small businesses remain the engine of the economy.
Thanks to President Donald Trump’s strong border policies, which have stopped the massive influx of the labor force, the nation is, by any measure, at full employment. The Kansas City Fed estimates that the number of jobs needed each month to keep the unemployment rate steady has fallen from around 150,000 to roughly 50,000.
Elevated oil prices are always a threat to small businesses, the labor market, and the broader economy. But the jobs report shows employers recognize today’s high gas prices as short-term pain that doesn’t alter the administration’s domestic pro-energy agenda, which represents a long-term structural shift. Expanded drilling, streamlined permitting, and a commitment to American energy independence mean that today’s prices are a temporary headache, not a permanent condition.
Meanwhile, the federal government workforce continues to fall. Since Trump took office, federal government jobs are down by 12% and at the lowest level since 1966, a huge victory over big government. Every position shed from the federal payroll is a resource freed up for the productive private economy — the part of the economy that actually creates goods, services, and lasting prosperity.
America’s resilient economy and labor market are a direct result of last year’s Republican tax cuts. The restoration of 100 percent immediate expensing — allowing businesses to write off capital investments in full the year they’re made — gives employers a powerful incentive to expand. The permanent 20 percent deduction for small business income and new interest deductions do the same. Together, these provisions are fueling exactly the kind of investment cycle that produces hiring and wage growth.
Guy Berkebile, chairman of Guy Chemical, a manufacturer south of Pittsburgh, explained the situation at an event hosted by Job Creators Network, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, featuring U.S. Rep. Scott Perry this week: “Tax cuts leave us business owners with more money to invest in our employees and in expansion. Immediate expensing helps justify the costs of new projects by reducing the payback time.”
Small businesses like Guy Chemical can help Americans connect the dots between tax cuts and more jobs, higher wages, and a stronger economy.
The mainstream media will continue searching for ways to cloud any positive news. Our job is to look at the data clearly and call it what it is: a strong economy, a resilient labor market, and pro-growth policies that are working.
Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of Job Creators Network, author of “The Real Race Revolutionaries,” and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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