December Jobs Report: 2014 best jobs growth since 1999

After a decade of of essentially no job growth in the “lost decade” of the Bush years, Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers, and another five plus years of Republicans doing everything in their power to sabotage President Obama’s policies to rescue the economy after the Bush Great Recession — the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression — the economy is finally demonstrating the momentum to continue to produce jobs. 2014 was the best jobs performance since 1999.

After campaigning all last year against Obama’s economic policies claiming they were a disaster for the economy, this week the Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle Turtle, Mitch McConnell,  claimed that the “glimmer of hope” and “uptick” we’re seeing in the economic data “appears to coincide” with the “expectation of a new Republican Congress.” No, really.

Note that this leap of logic would absolve Republicans from having failed to enact any policies that actually created jobs. It was just the anticipation of the less-than-less-than-do-nothing Tea-Publican Congress, the “Worst. Congress. Ever.” being fully in charge now, that magically inspired such confidence and “anticipatory”economic growth.

This derives from the Tea-Publican deeply held religious belief that they are divinely entitled to rule over us, that they are “God’s Own Party.” But as Stephen Colbert wryly noted, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” As I have frequently noted, The US economy performs better under Democratic presidents. There is no economic data which supports the Tea-Publican belief that they are better for the economy. None. They just believe this as a matter of faith, not objective quantifiable fact.

Steve Benen has the December Jobs numbers in U.S. job growth continues to look strong, jobless rate drops:

The new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs in December. The overall unemployment rate dropped to 5.6%, its lowest point since June 2008 — six-and-a-half years ago.

Once again, public-sector layoffs did not drag down the overall employment figures. Though jobs reports over the last few years have shown monthly government job losses, in December, the private sector added 240,000 while the public sector added 23,000. The latter may not sound like much, but after several years in which that total was negative, it’s encouraging.

As for the revisions, all of the news was once again excellent: October’s totals were revised up from 243,000 to 261,000, while November’s figures were revised up, from 321,000 to 353,000. Combined, that’s an additional 50,000 jobs.

All told, these totals may not be quite as stunning as last month’s figures, but this is still a strong jobs report. Just as important, it wraps up an impressive year — in 2014, the U.S. economy added over 2.95 million jobs overall and 2.86 million in the private sector. What’s more, November was the 51st consecutive month of positive job growth — the best stretch since 1939 — and the 57th consecutive month in which we’ve seen private-sector job growth, which is the longest on record.

Last year was easily the best year for U.S. job creation since 1999, which Republicans may struggle to explain in light of the Affordable Care Act, higher taxes, and federal regulations.

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Here’s another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Note to the Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle: No, asshole, “you didn’t build this.”