The Patriot Post® · After April Jobs Report, Where Do We Go From Here?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report for April was more discouraging than usual, with the economy adding only 160,000 jobs last month. Every first Friday of the month for months on end, BLS reported the same thing: The economy added about 200,000 jobs; the unemployment rate hovered at 5%; wages are barely growing. Recently, Obama reflected on his economic legacy with fondness, boasting, “We probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.” Meanwhile, the GDP for the first quarter of 2016 grew only a half of a percent. And regulations — Obama sure likes creating regulations — strangle the nation’s GDP growth by 0.8% every year. Usually, leaders boast when they manage an economy for growth, but Obama’s proud of suffocating it.

In April, the mining industry lost yet another 7,000 jobs — a steady decline since September 2014 — according to the jobs report. The unemployment rate stayed a steady 5% and the more complete U-6 measure of the economy’s labor underutilization has remained relatively unchanged for five months. More worrying, however, is that the percentage of Americans in the labor force declined to 62.8% and those who are collecting wages only saw an average eight-cent increase. Seeing how consumer spending is a huge factor in how the American economy performs, slow wage growth is a reminder that the economy isn’t going to kick back to life anytime soon.

This raises the question: How does the American economy move on from this mire? The Wall Street Journal reports that the pitiful jobs numbers will scare the Federal Reserve away from raising interest rates in June. And the presidential candidates aren’t offering any good solutions. Hillary Clinton proposes extending Obama’s failed policies. And, in his braggadocio fashion, Donald Trump suggests starting a trade war with China — something that this economy isn’t strong enough to handle, points out American Enterprise Institute scholar James Pethokoukis. Indications are that little will improve in the years to come.