The new jobs report for June comes out Friday.
If it’s anything like the May report — 223,000 new jobs and a reduced unemployment rate of 3.8 percent — it will be good news for the economy, workers and the stock market, showing signs of a strongly growing economy. Economists predict the June numbers should come in just under 200,000 new jobs.
The May numbers were particularly remarkable for blacks. They showed unemployment among African Americans was 5.9 percent, a full percentage point drop in just two months.
But even before the new numbers are released, Americans — especially Republicans — remain strongly positive about the economy under President Trump. A new Gallup Poll finds fully 65 percent of Americans say this is a good time to find a quality job.
That is the highest reading in the 17 years Gallup has been tracking this question, much larger than the previous high of 48 percent in January of 2007 under President George W. Bush.
The two lowest readings came during the Obama administration with eight percent in 2009 and again in 2011 when the president’s trillion-dollar economic stimulation package did not produce the predicted new job results.
Optimism about finding a new job began climbing after Trump’s inauguration in January of 2017 and with one month’s exception, has exceeded 60 percent since September 2017.
It might not surprise you that, as usually happens, views of the job market are tied closely to the public’s partisan views. Fully 85 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said this a good time to find a quality job. But even among Democrats and their leaning independents, half also agree this is a good time to find good work.
Survey data is based on results of telephone interviews with 1,520 adult Americans in all 50 states during the first half of June.
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