Commentary: Under The Hood, the Jobs Report Is Not Strong

Waitress Working

Looking under the hood of today’s jobs report shows it isn’t the home run that Democrats and the media claim.

Approximately half of the 303,000 jobs created last month came in the unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare sectors. These are not the types of jobs that drive growth and improve Americans’ living standards.

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Layoffs Surge to 14-Month High as Inflation Crushes Employers

Stressed woman looking at computer

The number of people laid off from American companies reached the highest point since January 2023, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

American employers cut 90,309 employees in March, 7 percent higher than the 84,638 employees laid off in February and higher than the 82,307 positions cut in January, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The layoffs are in contrast to seemingly strong job gains, which totaled 275,000 in February, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent.

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Commentary: The Unattainable American Dream

American flag waving in front of house

Get married, have children, buy a house, and live comfortably on a single income. Not very long ago, that path was the reality, the norm, for the great American middle class.

But America has gone backward in this regard, and struggling citizens know it all too well. Experiencing the kinds of lives enjoyed by our parents and grandparents has become impossible for most Americans, leading to widespread disenchantment and a palpable loss of patriotism and confidence in America.

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Electric Vehicle Market Share Plummets in First Quarter as Consumers Sour

Tesla Showroom

Growth in sales for electric vehicles (EV) slowed in the first quarter of the year as consumers remained wary of the product even though growth in sales of new vehicles remained strong, leading to a drop in EV market share, according to The Associated Press.

Sales for new vehicles grew 5 percent in the first three months of the year, but EV sales grew only 2.7 percent as more consumers chose traditional vehicles due to cost and product concerns, according to the AP. The average sales price declined 3.6 percent year-over-year to $44,186 in March as dealers looked to offload built-up inventory.

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Gas Prices Creeping Higher Again as Election Cycle Heats Up

Pumping Gas

The national average cost of a gallon of gas at the pump jumped by 20 cents over the past month, according to AAA.

Currently, Americans are paying about $3.55 per gallon on average, up from about $3.35 a month ago, according to AAA’s data. Goldman Sachs, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., has recently cautioned that prices could surge above $4 per gallon by May, according to Yahoo Finance.

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Biden Admin Threw Billions at EV Charging Stations, But Only a Handful Have Been Built

Electric Vehicle charging station

The Biden administration’s well-funded push to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers has so far resulted in only a handful of installations, according to The Washington Post.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021 allotted $7.5 billion to subsidize thousands of EV chargers to help the administration’s goal of having EVs constitute 50 percent of all new cars sold in 2030, but only seven stations in total have been built in four states to date, according to the Post. The slow rollout of the EV charger funding is unfolding as the Biden administration has recently issued stringent emissions standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will result in significant increases of EV sales for all three classes of vehicle.

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California Fast Food Workers Face Layoffs as State’s $20 Minimum Wage Goes into Effect

Auntie Anne's employees

All fast-food employees, regardless of age, will see a $20 an hour minimum wage in California, while the federal minimum wage is between $4.25 and $7.25, depending on age and length of time working.

California fast-food chains are laying off workers, raising prices and deciding against opening new stores as the state implements a minimum wage that is more than 175 percent higher than that required by the federal government.

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AT&T Resets Passcodes After 73 Million Current and Former Users Affected by Dark Web Leak

AT&T Global Network Operations Center

AT&T said that personal data from 73 million current and former users was leaked on the dark web and the phone giant has already reset the passcodes of millions of current customers who were impacted.

The data set, which appears to be from 2019 or earlier, was released on the dark web about two weeks ago, AT&T said Saturday.

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Home Cost Increases Doubling Those of Americans’ Incomes

Home for Sale

The current cost of a median-priced home has now reached a rate of increase that is twice as high as the increase in the average American household income.

As the Daily Caller reports, the median monthly home payment for the month of February was $2,838, a 12% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, the median household income is currently at $84,072, an increase of just 6% compared to last year. While the average income rate has roughly been on par with the cost of a new home for the last decade, the drastic change began in early 2022, when the average household income needed for a new home hit its current median of $113,520 a year.

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Company That Operated and Staffed Ship That Destroyed Baltimore Bridge was Heavily Focused on DEI

Francis Scott Key Bridge Accident

The company in charge of operating and staffing the doomed vessel that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in a major crash earlier this week was heavily focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. 

The Dali, the 948-foot vessel was managed by the Singapore-based Synergy Marine Group.

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