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| The most under-reported story of the year |
June 18, 2004 |
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Dear Friends,
What is the most under-reported story of the year? The surging American economy.
On Friday the Labor Department released job numbers for the last month for New Mexico. New Mexico was not hit as hard by the recession two years ago as other parts of the country. We have been growing jobs since 2001. Last month, New Mexico businesses added 2,800 jobs.
Economics is pretty dry stuff. But the part that is really important to people – where we really feel it – is jobs. And the jobs numbers are good.
A few tidbits:
Over 1.1 million jobs have been created in America in the last 5 months.
There have been 91,000 manufacturing jobs created in the past four months.
Current unemployment is 5.6 percent, down from its peak last year of 6.3 percent, and lower than the average unemployment in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
And here’s the real untold story:
In the last 3 quarters, the U.S. economy has expanded at the fastest pace in 20 years – 5.6 percent growth. To put it in perspective, the average growth rate in our economy has been 3.3 percent since 1960.
Record low interest rates, low inflation, increasing exports and record high home ownership are other factors that add to the good picture.
We aren’t in a “recovery” let alone an “anemic recovery”. We are in a period of strong economic growth that we need to sustain.
Certainly perception lags reality and, having weathered a short and shallow recession in 2000-2001 and slow job growth in 2002-2003, people are only starting to feel more confident that there is a good next career move opening up for them. But there is. It continues to be a good year.
Wish you were here,
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