As the presidential candidates this week stump through crucial swing states in the Rust Belt, they will present their competing visions of economic conditions in the United States. Their descriptions of America are so starkly different, it's as if they live in two different countries.
Republican candidate Donald Trump habitually portrays America as a hellscape of rising unemployment, searing poverty and ruined businesses. Democrat Hillary Clinton accentuates falling unemployment and the resilient post-recession rebound, to convey the message that her incumbent party is a better steward of the economy.
Last Friday, Clinton got a new arrow in her quiver, when the government unveiled a blockbuster jobs report. The U.S. Labor Department reported that employers added 255,000 jobs in July, far more than the 180,000 analysts had expected and the second straight month of strong gains. The headline unemployment rate held steady at 4.9%.
The unemployment rate has fallen by more than half since peaking at 10% in the wake of the Great Recession seven years ago. Hiring in July was strong across almost every major industry and was accompanied by an uptick in the labor force participation rate of one-tenth, to 62.8%. Hourly wages also moved higher, increasing by 8 cents, or an annualized pace of 2.6%. Wage stagnation has been an election issue; the latest data partially ameliorate this concern.
The good news on the job front pushed the broader indices to record highs on Friday, as investors moved out of safer assets such as bonds and precious metals and into better growth opportunities, notably technology stocks. Over the past few weeks, tech bellwethers such as Apple (AAPL) have roared back to lead the market higher.
