Washington, DC - Rep. Tom Price (GA-06-R) issued the following statement regarding the strength of the American economy.

“Republican pro-growth policies continue to drive the American economy to new heights,” said Price. “Tax cuts have created strong revenues and confidence in investment. Greater investment has supported businesses who in turn continue to offer new, well-paying jobs.”

“The market growth over the last several weeks is another sign of the immense strength and vitality of this economy. Americans want to be able to spend their money as they see fit. The Republican economic policies provide this opportunity.

Highlights of Strong Republican-led Economic Growth:

Jobs Up

• The economy added 51,000 payroll jobs in September for the 37th consecutive month of job growth.
• Revisions show an extra 60,000 payroll jobs were added in August and over 800,000 more jobs in historical revisions.
• More than 6.6 million payroll jobs have been added in the past 3 years, up from the previous estimate of 5.7 million..

Wages Up

• Wages rose 0.2% in September alone for a total increase of 4% over the last 12 months (nominal wages, not adjusted for inflation). That’s much faster than the previous year.
• Wages have been increasing, but large and unanticipated increases in energy prices meant workers had to spend much of those increases on energy purchases like gasoline.
• Gasoline prices have now dropped 74 cents since early August.
• If energy prices and inflation hold at current levels, we will see significant real wage growth this year.

Unemployment Down

• The unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% in September.
• People are still entering the labor force. It grew by over 100,000. This means the unemployment rate dropped because of more jobs, not because of people stopping to look for work.

What about GDP growth?

• GDP growth is moderating and will likely be slower in the 3rd quarter than in the first half of the year.
• For the year we’re expecting GDP growth in the 3-3.5% range.

What about housing?

• Housing has moderated from very high growth. A decline was expected and was included in economic forecasts that still show robust economic growth in the future.
• Housing remains at or above 1990s levels.

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