2.6 million jobs created in 2018. that is the best since 2015 when we saw 2.7 million. just take a look at that for a minute, you guys. that s where we are, a strong finish to 2018 and another strong year for hiring in 2018, the best in a couple years. i want to look at the markets here real quickly because you have them up. but they are still not even take i away half of yesterday s loss. yesterday was a route in tech. information technology shares at a seven year low. apple is a real problem there. but these jobs numbers very interesting. one last statistics, wages up. so through the fall you had at least 3% wage growth. that s going to create an interesting conversation i think over at the fed. these are strong numbers. the fed has been talking about people have been talking about whether the fed has been raising interest rates too quickly. maybe they will need to keep raising interest rates because of how hot the economy looks.
201 2019 starts. worst december. any optimism for january and for 2019 in general or is the expectation at least in the short run to see a lot more of the volatility? we could see more of the volatility and what comes down to you is a reconciliation of the economic data and what we all see as the health of the overall market. the reason why i say that is because we still do have economic data points. things like job creation, things like unemployment, things like gross domestic product and the u.s. are showing signs of life and growth. those are good signs. however, there s a sentiment or survey driven data where people are not as optimistic or don t feel as good about the future. whether or not there s any kind of a carry-through in the economic data, that is growth and jobs and whatnot to catch up with the slowing sentiment data. but for right now, the economy looks like it s growing and growing. there are some concerns about a possible recession but it s not
the markets took a bit of a hit today, many on wall street fear that maybe the worst is yet to come. even the wall street journal declaring that the u.s. economy economy/assignments that it s downhill from here. one of the authors of that article, global economics editor and fox news contributor, aunt susan lee. john, let me start with you. is it really that gloomy? let me say, no one i was talking to has predicted the recession but let me say the growth rate of the economy looks like it s going to slow down. 4.2%, and a lot of the economists are we are talking to are saying it will slow down in
the respective bases is. i worked on four presidential campaigns. in each situation, it was all about where the motivation was from the base. i think donald trump at cpac yesterday, what you saw was someone who understood the value of a charged up base. he can motivate them. at the beginning of the year, there were real questions about where the republicans saw themselves or this whole idea of a wave election. you think that s improved significantly since then? i think it s always been a question of how the economy looks, you know about this well. the he question i question is we economy october or november when the people are making their decisions. if we hit economic turbulence between now and then, i think republicans are in real trouble. if the economy continues to grow and the impact of the tax bill continues to be a positive one, then i think republicans will be safer than expected. the other factor is readies is re-districting.
asking questions, one of the heated answers about what a candidate would do to keep the country safe. they do believe that we ought to have a minimum wage that is more livab livable. i would hope that the questions this evening will gender some responses a little more sub si tif and aspirational for the voters than what i heard at the last republican debate. congressman. i would like to pick up on that. we re moments away from a very important jobs report. on paper the economy looks like it s doing just fine at 5.1% unemployment rate. they re expecting 180,000 jobs created. i m curious to know what you and