The U.S. economy reached a record 6.7 million job openings in April, the Department of Labor stated Tuesday, hundreds of thousands more than the number of unemployed workers.

March and April both saw the number of job openings outstrip the number of unemployed workers.

There were 6.7 million job openings in April and only 6.35 million job seekers. The previous month saw 6.63 million job openings, more than the 6.59 million unemployed workers.

The number of openings has never been higher than the number of job seekers since the government started counting employment opportunities in 2000. . .

“Never before have we had an economy where the number of open jobs exceeds the number of job seekers,” remarked Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. “This administration is committed to ensuring that all Americans have the necessary skills to access good, family-sustaining jobs.” (Read more from “Job Openings Started Outstripping Job Seekers for First Time” HERE)

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Despite the low rumble of an economic slowdown on the horizon from various experts predicting the worst is to come, the Trump administration will no doubt be happy to say the experts were wrong with the July Jobs Report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday.

They report the economy added 222,000 jobs, which represents a significant increase over expert predictions of 158,000 jobs. The June unemployment rate was virtually unchanged at 4.4 percent, and the Labor Force Participation rate crept up to 62.8 percent after four months of decline.

In addition to this, Bureau of Labor Statistics revised upward their April payroll numbers by 33,000 jobs, from 174,000 to 207,000. Also, the May numbers were revised up 14,000 jobs from 138,000 to 152,000. This increases the average number of jobs per month created to nearly 189,000 per month since President Donald Trump took office in January.

While on the face, these numbers are decent, the White House celebration should be short-lived, and more attention must be placed on passing meaningful reforms through Congress. Growth cannot be sustained if we continue down the same path we are on.

Similar to last month, we saw primary gains in Health Care (37,000 jobs)–continuing its upward trend since early 2016, Social Assistance (23,000), Financial activities (17,000), and mining employment (8,000) – representing an increase of 56,000 jobs since reaching a low in October 2016, and representing a promise kept by Trump to put coal miners back to work.

Even though the Labor Force participation rate fell slightly, there are still several million Americans who could be working that are not. This means that job creators are still not confident enough to expand their employment rosters.

In addition, we continue to see long-term unemployment numbers struggle (24.3 percent of those unemployed), as well as stubborn numbers for people marginally attached to the workforce and persons employed part time for economic reasons.

As mentioned above, many experts are hesitant to celebrate considering their concerns about inflation, and a tightening job market. Other than heroic executive action by Trump, the economy still struggles under the accumulated weight of growth-killing policies left over from the Obama administration. If nothing is changed, the numbers (and the experts) will continue to be pessimistic and stagnant.

Over the last 10 years, Washington has raised taxes, increased the regulatory burden on manufacturers, destroyed choice and affordability of healthcare, invested nearly a trillion dollars of government money in a failed effort to “stimulate” the economy, and propped up the stock market with quantitative easing.

All of this for an average growth rate of 1.9 percent.

Currently, there are several proposals on the table that would jump start this economy. They range from tax cuts, to repealing Obamacare, to reforming the tax code, to renegotiating deals that allow for free trade between our friends in other nations. All are likely to help.

It’s time to try something different, it’s time for policies that encourage the millions of people that could be working to get back in the workforce.

Similar to last month, we saw primary gains in Health Care (37,000 jobs)–continuing its upward trend since early 2016, Social Assistance (23,000), Financial activities (17,000), and mining employment (8,000) – representing an increase of 56,000 jobs since reaching a low in October 2016, and representing a promise kept by Trump to put coal miners back to work.

Even though the Labor Force participation rate fell slightly, there are still several million Americans who could be working that are not. This means that job creators are still not confident enough to expand their employment rosters.

In addition, we continue to see long-term unemployment numbers struggle (24.3 percent of those unemployed), as well as stubborn numbers for people marginally attached to the workforce and persons employed part time for economic reasons.

As mentioned above, many experts are hesitant to celebrate considering their concerns about inflation, and a tightening job market. Other than heroic executive action by Trump, the economy still struggles under the accumulated weight of growth-killing policies left over from the Obama administration. If nothing is changed, the numbers (and the experts) will continue to be pessimistic and stagnant.

Over the last 10 years, Washington has raised taxes, increased the regulatory burden on manufacturers, destroyed choice and affordability of healthcare, invested nearly a trillion dollars of government money in a failed effort to “stimulate” the economy, and propped up the stock market with quantitative easing.

All of this for an average growth rate of 1.9 percent.

Currently, there are several proposals on the table that would jump start this economy. They range from tax cuts, to repealing Obamacare, to reforming the tax code, to renegotiating deals that allow for free trade between our friends in other nations. All are likely to help.

It’s time to try something different, it’s time for policies that encourage the millions of people that could be working to get back in the workforce. (For more from the author of “Jobs Report Stronger Than Expected, but More Must Be Done to Boost the Economy” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The April jobs report is in, and the Trump administration is taking a victory lap.

That’s because the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an increase of 211,000 jobs (up from an unimpressive 79,000 in March) and a drop in the unemployment rate from 4.5 percent to 4.4 percent—the lowest rate since May 2007.

In addition, the number of people who were employed part time for economic reasons—or working part time but want to work full time—fell by 281,000, continuing a positive trend.

The primary gains in jobs came from leisure and hospitality (55,000 jobs), health care and social assistance (37,000 jobs), financial activities and insurance carries (33,000 jobs), and mining/support for mining—which includes the oil and coal industries (15,000 jobs).

Since President Donald Trump was elected, nearly 50,000 jobs have been added in the mining/support for mining sector. This is important, because Trump campaigned on the promise to bring back jobs like these that were lost because of President Barack Obama’s regulations.

But as with most job reports in recent history, the good and not-so-good go hand in hand.

This month, the labor force participation rate fell a 10th of a point to 62.9 percent, continuing the trend of people dropping out of the labor force, or just giving up looking for a job. Last month, 162,000 people joined this discouraged group.

The labor force participation rate is arguably one of our most important economic and social indicators. Currently, the United States has 254,588,000 people that are able to work, and only 160,213,000 are currently participating in the labor force.

With entitlement spending at levels that threaten national solvency, it is important to understand why so many Americans that could be working don’t do so.

There is much work to be done to convince the 94.4 million people currently not working that reentering the workforce is worth it. The best way to achieve this is by creating more jobs through more economic growth.

The slow rate of growth over the last eight years is likely both a symptom and a cause of declining participation in the labor force. Over the last year, we have averaged growth at or below two percent, which is well below the historic average of 3.3 percent.

If growth is the goal, the formula is pretty simple: Obamacare must be repealed, tax cuts and tax reform must be signed into law, and we must move beyond executive orders to substantive legislative reform.

We must continue to cut regulation of all shapes and sizes that get in the way of growth.

It is not enough just to announce an intention to do these things. They must be pushed across the finish line.

When Trump took office on Jan. 20 of this year, he spelled out several goals for his administration.

At the top of that list was to create 25 million jobs over the next 10 years. This would require the economy to create 208,000 jobs each month over the next 10 years.

Some experts have declared that we have reached our peak economic growth. But that is defeatist thinking. If Washington simply gives Americans the economic freedom to innovate, they will find a way to adapt to any circumstance.

Economic growth can also come in unanticipated ways. Just look at the fracking boom. Ten years ago, we were waving the white flag on domestic fossil fuel production and felt totally reliant on foreign energy sources. Now, we are a world leader.

If the Trump administration can translate its policy directives into action, we have the potential to see job growth like never before. Until then, we will continue to see good and bad jobs reports.

Let’s hope the good continues to outweigh the bad. (For more from the author of “Encouraging April Jobs Report Shows Need for More Pro-Growth Reforms” please click HERE)

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Should we be alarmed that the number of job cuts announced by large U.S. companies was 35 percent higher in April than it was in March? This is definitely a case where the trend is not our friend. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. firms announced 65,141 job cuts during April, which represented a massive 35 percent increase over the previous month. And so far this year overall, job cut announcements are running 24 percent higher than for the exact same period in 2015. Meanwhile, on Thursday we learned that initial claims for unemployment benefits shot up dramatically last week. In fact, the jump of 17,000 was the largest increase that we have seen in over a year. Of course the U.S. economy has been slowing down for quite a while now, and many have been wondering when we would begin to see that slowdown reflected in the employment numbers. Well, that day has now arrived.

At this point, U.S. firms are laying off people at a rate that we have not seen since the last financial crisis. Here is what Zero Hedge had to say about these latest numbers…

While one can debate the veracity of the BLS’ seasonally adjusted data, one thing is certain: when a company announces it will layoff thousands, it will. So for all those who suggest that all is well with the US jobs picture based on initial claims reports, here is the latest report from Challenger according to which the pace of downsizing increased in April jumped by 35% to 65,141 during the month of April, from the 48,207 layoff announcements in March.

Looking further back, in the first four months of 2016, employers have announced a total of 250,061 planned job cuts, up 24% from the 201,796 job cuts tracked during the same period a year ago. This represents the highest January-April total since 2009, when the opening four months of the year saw 695,100 job cuts in the aftermath of the biggest financial crisis in modern history.

So what is causing this?

Why are firms laying off so many people all of a sudden?

My readers are very well aware of the pain that the energy industry is experiencing at the moment, but surprisingly it was not the energy industry that announced the most job cuts in April…

Computer firms announced 16,923 job cuts during the month; the highest total among all industries. That total includes 12,000 from chipmaker Intel, which is shifting away from the traditional desktop and laptop market and toward the mobile market. To date, computer firms have announced 33,925 job cuts, up 262 percent from a year ago, when job cuts in the sector totaled just 9,368 through the first four months of the year.

Yes, the U.S. energy industry has lost well over 100,000 good paying jobs since the beginning of last year, but the downturn is so much broader than that. All over America corporate earnings are down, and when earnings fall it is inevitable that layoffs will follow.

As I have written about previously, earnings for companies listed on the S&P 500 have fallen a total of 18.5 percent from their peak in late 2014, and it was being projected that corporate earnings overall would be down 8.5 percent for the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period a year ago.

And in the chart that I have posted below, you can see that corporate profits after tax have been falling precipitously since peaking in mid-2015…

As this new economic downturn intensifies, the layoffs will accelerate.

In plain English, that means that a whole lot more people will be losing their jobs.

Unfortunately, a very large percentage of Americans didn’t learn anything from the last crisis and are living on the financial edge. In fact, the Federal Reserve says that 47 percent of all Americans cannot even pay an unexpected $400 emergency room bill without borrowing the money or selling something.

So just like back in 2008, we are going to see huge numbers of people unable to pay their bills when they lose their jobs. Foreclosures are going to skyrocket, and lots and lots of families are going to be put out into the street.

This is why I have been preaching the importance of having an emergency fund for years. It is absolutely imperative to have an emergency fund that can cover your bills for at least six months in the event that there is a job loss or some other sort of major disaster strikes.

If you have not done this already, you are probably already too late.

The cold, hard reality of the matter is that it would take most families quite a while to save up a six month emergency fund if they are starting from zero.

So if you are in this position and you lose your job, you may have to move in with family or friends when your money runs out.

I don’t mean to be cold, but this is the situation that we are facing. The next employment crisis is already here, and it is going to get much, much worse. No matter who becomes “the next president”, job cuts are going to accelerate and good jobs are going to become exceedingly difficult to find.

I am certainly not advocating that anyone give up. If you still have a good job for the moment, tighten your belt and use this time to feverishly prepare the very best that you can.

Sadly, tens of millions of Americans believed that this bubble of false prosperity would keep on rolling, and so they wasted immense amounts of precious time and resources. Now the day of reckoning is here, and vast numbers of our fellow citizens are going to discover the horror of being unprepared. (For more from the author of “The Next Employment Crisis Is Here: Job Cuts at U.S. Companies Jump 35 Percent in April” please click HERE)

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