release, talked about the strength of the consumer, still showing signs of health, and so this, of course, is great news. the u.s. consumer is the backbone of our economy. we want to see numbers like this. whether this complicates the job for the fed is a different question, because, of course, the federal reserve wants to cool spending as it tries to lower inflation. so, good news for the state of the consumer. not sure how chairman powell will view it. trying to wrap your head around all this almost conflicting news we ve been getting the last few days, is one way to look at this, that the economy there is enough strength in the economy so maybe just maybe it is possible for the fed to raise rates to fight inflation and not push it into a recession? well, john, that s exactly what the federal reserve and chairman powell have said, that they believe there is so much strength in the consumer, that there is so much strength certainly in our jobs market, 3.6% unemployment rate. we
administration in nearly 40 years. that was president biden on friday, touting a jobs report that would make any president happy. more than 370,000 new jobs created last month, bringing private sector employment back to pre-pandemic levels. and wages are also up, 5.1% compared to one year ago, beating most expectations. but, because there is always a but, some economists say the strong, economic indicators make a strong case for the fed to raise interest rates again, as it tries to combat high inflation. now joining, demean paula, that the, business editor at the washington post. damian, welcome back to the sunday show. happy sunday! oh, happy sunday! let s start with the jobs report. major, important indicator. wage growth is up, job growth is up. the good news, right? it is great news! i think if we were going to see
good, 370,000 plus jobs, 3.6 unemployment rate but if you dig in deeper you see things that are troubling. one is that we-about 350,000 people in the workforce. so one of the reasons why the unemployment rate is holding at allow number is because the denominator is falling, there s less people in the workforce. the other thing is wage gains which you would think in an inflationary period you would see more wage gains especially with the amount of disruption in the labor market, more job openings than unemployed folks but the reality the pace of wage gains is slowing month over month. i think it s a lagging indicator but i tend to look at what the leading indicators are and it looks like there s still troubles ahead. rich: do you think businesses are making do with fewer employees? they are to be. the airline, they cannot go in place in payment where they would keep up with inflation?
they have also asked if the president will be open to stack thing, stacking the supreme court with more liberal judges. they also said they will not do that. this is something biden has passionately cannot against. he has pushed people for the need to get out and vote in november. he almost said yesterday this will be a challenge to the court because he is saying women would come out in droves to vote to make sure that congress has the votes coming of ember or early next year in order to codify roe versus wade. there s only so much executive action that the president can do. at all of this was happening, biden putting pressure on this point, he also was celebrating a jobs report yesterday that came in. if you are the key points from this. 370,000 new jobs were added last month, that s a record high jobs numbers right now, the private sector a 5% wage increase, and unplayed in
category 5 political hurricane is taking form offshore and headed right toward democratic central. while the latest jobs report will be seen at the white house as a sign of success one brief idea of where things stand with the economy. wealth owe get another major report next week when the latest consumer price index report is due out and tell us how much we re paying on certain goods and how much they ve gone up or down in the last month and a key indicator about inflation, which we talked a lot about. yes, we have. mark meredith. thank you. bill: fresh headlines from maria bartiromo to analyze. we were expecting 270,000, we had 370,000. it s a good number. i don t see a lot of people putting it there. how do you evaluate it when the previous two months have been revised lower by about 75,000 jobs, maria? good morning. bill. definitely a strong report. it shows the jobs market is