Unemployment Rate Rises By 0.1% Again In January

Job creation in January was more than expected. Only about 175,000 jobs were expected to be created, but the Labor Department reports that 227,000 were created. Unfortunately, because the size of the civilian work force also increased significantly, the unemployment rate did not drop. It rose by 0.1% for the second month in a row (from 4.7% to 4.8%).

I don't think that increase can be laid at the feet of any president, since 19 days happened under the lame duck president (Obama) and 12 days happened under the new president (Trump). But anything that happens from this point will be in the presidency of Donald Trump. Will the unemployment rate decrease because of the "millions" of new jobs he claims he will create? I doubt it, because he clings to the failed GOP "trickle-down" policy -- the same policy that showed anemic job growth under George W. Bush.

Trump plans to increase job creation by massively cutting corporate taxes and by making more government austerity cuts. The problem is the first has nothing to do with job creation, and the second takes money out of the economy (which is more likely to hurt job creation). It will probably take a few months for the effects of Trump's policy to be felt in the economy, but I expect they will increase the unemployment rate.

Here are the relevant statistics for January 2017:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE

159,716,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

7,635,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

4.8%

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP

Adult men...............4.4%
Adult women...............4.4%
Teenagers (16-19)...............15.0%
Whites...............4.3%
Blacks...............7.7%
Hispanics...............5.9%
Asians...............3.7%
Less than HS diploma...............7.7%
HS diploma...............5.3%
Some college...............3.8%
BS degree or more...............2.5%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (no longer in the official count)

1,752,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBER (official + marginally-attached)

9,387,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

5.87%