Larry Kudlow: US economy created 8M jobs in 2 months, ‘PPP worked’
White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow weighs in on the June jobs report on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday that “the bulk of the country is reopening and businesses are going through a new beginning.”
“It’s showing up in the jobs numbers,” Kudlow said, calling it “a powerful, powerful trend.”
Kudlow made the comments shortly after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent in June and employers added 4.8 million jobs — the biggest increase on record. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected the report to show that unemployment dropped to 12.3 percent and that employers added 3 million jobs.
“It's a spectacular number,” Kudlow said reacting to the 4.8 million jobs created in June, adding that about eight million jobs were created in the past two months.
“The unemployment rate is falling, people are going back to work,” Kudlow said. “There’s a good spirit about this.”
He said there was an increase of more than 400,000 jobs for African-Americans in June following an increase of about 300,000 in May.
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“So that’s a 700,000 job increase for African-Americans,” Kudlow said.
“Hispanics are up 1.5 million in this report and women [are] up 3 million in this report,” he continued.
He did acknowledge, however, that “all is not solved.”
“We still have too many people on the unemployment rolls,” Kudlow said. “There’s still too much hardship, so we’ve got to continue to work.”
Kudlow said the report indicates that businesses shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March rehired millions of idled workers.
“The rescue package plays a role here because so many of those laid off were temporary layoffs and furloughs,” Kudlow pointed out.
He said more people are returning to work because they stayed “connected to their company” and that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) worked.
He said the program was “brilliantly designed” and executed.
During the pandemic, Congress allocated billions of dollars to small businesses in PPP loans that could be converted to grants if they met certain requirements.
“It’s paying off and I think it’s going to continue to pay off,” Kudlow said.
During a news conference on Thursday, shortly after the report was released, President Trump said jobs are “roaring back” and noted that “80 percent of small businesses are now open.”
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“We think we’re going to have some very good numbers in the coming months,” Trump added.
Fox Business’ Megan Henney and Fox News’ Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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