For its coverage of July’s unemployment numbers, CNSNews.com makes sure to shill for President Trump. In her lead story, Susan Jones conceded that improvement has slowed, but she also wants to remind us how great Trump made things before the pandemic:
It’s been almost five months since the emerging COVID pandemic crashed what had been a strong and record-breaking employment streak under President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the employment picture continues to improve, as 143,532,000 people were working in July, up 1,350,000 from the 142,182,000 employed in June. This is the third straight monthly increase in the number of employed, although it’s a smaller increase than June’s (+4,940,000) and the one in May (+3,827,000).
The number of employed broke 25 records under President Trump, most recently in December 2019 when 158,803,000 people were counted as employed.
It’s not until the sixth paragraph that she gets around to mentioning the number that matters: the unemployment rate.
Craig Bannister served up his usual sidebar on the Hispanic unemployment rate, while editor in chief Terry Jeffrey did the same on government employment.
And, as it has refused to do since Trump took office, none of these CNS articles report the “real unemployment rate” — the U-6 rate that includes “marginally attached” employees as well as part-time workers seeking full-time work — despite the fact it was a favorite metric when President Obama was in office. (It was 16.8 percent in July.)