President Trump can now factually claim that he has created more than a million jobs following the Labor Department's Friday announcement that 209,000 jobs were added in July, Politico reports. "More people are coming into the labor force and finding jobs," Citizens' Bank's global markets head Tony Bedikian told CNBC. "It's difficult to find anything really negative in the report."
Job growth is more or less at the same levels as 2016, with an average of 184,000 created per month in 2017 — including January, when former President Barack Obama was still in office. In 2016, an average of 187,000 jobs were created per month. Critics, including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) of the Joint Economic Committee, pointed to the fact that "after nearly eight months on the job, President Trump has failed to come up with a cogent plan to create good-paying jobs and increase wages." House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) offered mixed praise, claiming the economy is making "steady progress," but "also shows too many Americans are still having a hard time finding good-paying jobs, getting a raise, and providing for their families."
Trump has falsely claimed in the past that he had already created a million jobs, Politico adds. On June 1, Trump erroneously claimed that "we've added … more than a million private sector jobs," and on Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also mistakenly claimed a million jobs had been created. At that point, the tally was only 863,000.