Jobs Boom

ADP’s National Employment Report shows that the economy added 298,000 jobs in February. January’s number was also revised upward from 246,000 to 261,000. The February number was well above what most economists had predicted. “February proved to be an incredibly strong month for employment with increases we have not seen in years,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

For context, here are ADP’s numbers over the last year:

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Normally, I wouldn’t say that an incoming administration deserves either credit or blame for what happens in its first few months. There hasn’t been enough time for its policies to have en effect. Here, however, the Trump administration probable does deserve considerable credit. Businesses have been hearing about President Trump’s plans to cut red tape and reform the tax code for several months now, and it is reasonable to think that this is influencing plans to hire and expand:

“Confidence is playing a large role,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told CNBC. “Businesses are anticipating a lot of good stuff–tax cuts, less regulation. They are hiring more aggressively.”

Watch for the out-of-ammo Democrats to continue yammering about Russia.

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