The Patriot Post® · No Good Jobs in the May Jobs Report

The only jobs added to Barack Obama’s economy in May were the ones created by government regulation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released what Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey calls the worst report in five years. Indeed, the numbers are bad: Only 38,000 jobs were added in May. The number of Americans who are doing part-time work when they want a full-time position increased by almost a half million. The percentage of Americans who are gainfully employed shrunk by 0.2 points and now only 62.6% of the population is holding down a job. That last statistic is why BLS could spin the numbers to say the unemployment rate declined to 4.7%.

According to BLS data, the lone industry to grow in May was the health care industry — an industry that’s growing only because ObamaCare regulations are forcing Americans to spend more of their money in the industry. Ahead of the jobs report, Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana, to tout his seven years of bringing a statist touch to the economy. It was from Elkhart in 2009 that Obama argued for a stimulus bill to flood the well-connected businesses of the nation with cash. Friday’s jobs report is a reminder of just how lackluster the “recovery” has been, thanks to his policies.

The ray of hope in the jobs report is that wages increased by five cents in May, so the average hourly wage is $25.59 an hour. Wages are still slowly growing, which might increase consumer spending, which might help revive the economy. But GDP grew just 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016, and this jobs report hints that the second will be equally anemic.