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2018: The Year of the Worker

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On Monday the Department of Labor announced its blockbuster jobs report with some 350,000 new jobs (including upward revisions from previous months) and continued strong wage gains for American workers. This was one of the most bullish jobs reports in recent memory. What a way to close out 2018 in what would now have to be labeled: the year of the American worker.  

These past twelve months have slammed Wall Street hard with half of 2017's stock blockbuster gains surrendered. But for now, prosperity has rotated to Main Street USA where things have rarely been better than in 2018. 
    
Not in the last fifty years has the jobs market been as strong as it is today. 
 
Start with the fact that at 3.8%, the unemployment rate is matching its low-point of the last half-century. Almost half of the states in the union now have their lowest unemployment rates EVER recorded by the Labor Department. The labor market is so attractive for workers today that America is literally running out of qualified workers to fill all the jobs. The latest jobs report spotlights 7 million more job postings than workers available to fill them. That's a bigger number than the entire population of Indiana. An all-time high 130 million Americans now have a job. We've averaged just about 200,000 new jobs a month under Trump.  
 
The black and Hispanic unemployment rates in November were lower in 2018 than they have been at any time since the day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
 
This super-tight labor market gives workers more bargaining power with their employers. More and more Americans are demanding wage hikes from their employers and millions got those deserved raises. Pay gains in real terms this year are now estimated at 3% - one of the biggest increases in two decades. And don't believe the Trump-haters who say that only the rich benefited. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the lowest paid Americans got the BIGGEST gains. Who needs the minimum wage, when we have a booming economy with a tide that lifts all boats. 
 
In 2018 some 4 million workers got pay bonuses from employers thanks to the Trump tax cut. Companies from Disney, to Walmart, to FedEx to Amazon handed out bonus checks and benefit boosts typically ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Sorry, Nancy Pelosi, not too many workers think a check of $2,500 is "crumbs." 
 
On top of these bonuses, my colleagues at the Heritage Foundation report that the typical middle-class family received more than a $2,000 tax cut this year thanks to the Trump tax plan. 
 
But more than any catalog of statistics, it may be the real-life news stories over the last year that help us appreciate the great American employment surge. CNBC reports that the hiring of ex-convicts is rising rapidly as employers search for ready and able workers. 
 
Or there is the story of truckers in the oil patch in Texas getting fifty and even $100,000 signing bonuses – as if they were superstar professional athletes. 
 
In other areas of the country, manufacturers are now advertising on billboards that prospective job applicants don't have to pass a drug test to be considered. Even 94% of high school dropouts that want a job, have one. 
 
The bottom line is this. There has never been in most of our entire lifetimes a better time to be looking for a job than today. Unemployment is nonexistent in almost all parts of the country. Wages are rising for the first time in two decades. Americans are again the most productive and among the highest paid workers in the world. Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump advisor, titles his new book: "The Blue Collar President. That is exactly what Trump is: the working man and woman's CEO. 
 
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks. His new book with Arthur Laffer is titled Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the Economy.

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About The Author

Stephen
Moore

Stephen Moore is a contributing author for CBN News. He was a senior economic advisor to the Trump campaign and is chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, a position he has held since January, 2014. Previously, Moore wrote for The Wall Street Journal and was also a member of The Journal'’s editorial board. As chief economist at Heritage, Moore focuses on advancing public policies that increase the rate of economic growth to help the United States retain its position as the global economic superpower. He also works on budget, fiscal and monetary policy and showcases states that get fiscal