JOBS/NONTRUTHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday [1-30-18] delivered his first State of the Union address, and CNN’s Reality Check Team was there to vet his claims.
The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the speech and analyzed key statements, rating them either true, true but misleading, or false…
2.4 million jobs since Trump elected…
There’s no question that the job market is strong right now. It has been for years.
Trump opted on Tuesday to cite the growth in jobs from his election, rather than when he took office in January.
‘Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone,’ he said.
It’s true that the economy has added 2.4 million jobs since November 2016. And it created 196,000 manufacturing positions last year … or 214,000 since November 2016.
Here are the stats from the President’s first year in office: 2 million jobs were added in 2017, growing for a record 87 straight months. (Technically, Trump only gets credit for the 1.8 million jobs created since last February. That’s because the January report was done under former President Barack Obama’s watch.)
Unemployment is at 4.1%, matching the lowest level in 17 years. Companies say they are having a hard time finding workers to fill jobs.
Still, job growth actually slowed last year. That’s because he inherited a strong job market from former Obama. The United States added almost 3 million jobs in 2014, 2.7 million in 2015 and 2.2 million in 2016.
That trend is what’s expected in such a long economic expansion. As unemployment moves to historic lows, job gains eventually slow down.
Verdict: True.”
-CNN’s Reality Check Team, “CNN’s Reality Check Team vets Trump’s State of the Union,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 31, 2018 09:46am