WEST WING READS 02/13/2019 JOB OPENINGS HIT ALL TIME HIGH!

Job Openings Hit Record High of 7.3 Million in December “The number of job openings hit a record high of 7.3 million in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday in a sign of the labor market’s strength,” Joseph Lawler reports in the Washington Examiner. “The construction industry recorded 382,000 new posts, far more than ever before . . . In the past three months, the economy has added an average of 241,000 net new jobs a month, more than twice as much as needed to keep up with population growth and keep unemployment trending down.” Click here to read more.

“USA Today ran a surprising story on Tuesday headlined ‘Can the middle-class revival under Trump last?’ It's surprising — shocking really — because it might just be the first time a major news outlet has admitted that there has been a middle-class revival under Trump,” the Investor’s Business Daily editorial board writes. “It's a safe bet that had a Democrat been in the White House over the past two years things would be different.”

“U.S. manufacturing is once again in the news. New data shows America’s factories adding 261,000 jobs from January 2018 to January 2019. In the State of the Union, President Trump emphasized the urgency of confronting predatory trade from countries like China,” Michael Stumo writes in The Hill. “There’s no doubt that America’s manufacturers are currently rebounding. The tariffs that President Trump imposed a year ago on steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines have already created more than 11,000 new jobs.”

“The Donald Trump White House is more than capable of doing conventional things well. Last week’s State of the Union saw a complex policy process synthesized into a well-delivered prime-time address that captured the president’s unique policy agenda and won high praise,” Raj Shah writes in USA Today. “But if conventional management styles alone could make or break a presidency, historians would be praising Jimmy Carter and vilifying Ronald Reagan.”