Mixed grades: Jobs report card offers little to brag about

At first glance, the nation’s jobs report for April, released Friday, appeared positive, until you looked below the surface — the already-disappointing job creation figures for March had to be adjusted downward and wages in April barely inched up.

A respectable 223,000 jobs were created last month, while the unemployment rate ticked down by one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.4 percent. That was an improvement compared to March’s depressing figure of 126,000 new jobs, which was revised down to 85,000 in the April report. Therefore, in March-April the economy averaged only 154,000 jobs created per month, barely enough to cover the monthly 150,000 people who start looking for jobs.

Wages showed only a 0.1 percentage point rise in April, for an annual growth rate so far of 2.2 percent, only slightly above inflation. That means average American workers scarcely gained ground at all. Meanwhile, a different report last week showed the nation’s top 25 hedge fund managers — all men, no women — had compensation in 2014 of $11.6 billion, or $464 million each.

Another discouraging figure was the U.S. trade deficit, which reached $51.4 billion, the highest in six and a half years.

The shortfall in U.S. exports to imports jumped $15.5 billion, or 43 percent, from February’s $35.9 billion.

What are Americans to make of this? First, the economy is creating jobs, but at a disappointing rate. Second, the rich (and not just hedge fund managers) are doing well while the middle class’ standard of living is stuck in low gear. Third, the United States is performing poorly on international trade.

Now is the perfect time for the 2016 presidential candidates to tell the public what they would do about these economic problems if elected — in practical specifics, not fuzzy exhortations.

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette