Your Opinion: Great new jobs report

Dear Editor:

What a great May jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The following statistics note the improvement since the December 2016 report. The unemployment rate has dropped from 4.7 percent to 3.8 percent, the lowest since December 1969. The unemployment rate for blacks dropped from 7.9 percent to 5.9 percent, the lowest on record for online statistics. Over 3.2 million more people are employed. Average hourly earnings for private nonfarm payrolls has risen from $25.95 to $26.92 while average hourly earnings for private-sector production and non-supervisory personnel rose from $21.78 to $22.59.

There is still room for improvement, especially in the area of the labor force participation by men who are over the age of 20. Their labor force participation rate of 71.7 compares to a December 2006, prerecession rate of 76.2.

We are importing both skilled and un-skilled foreigners to work in our nation because we have no citizens who are willing to, or capable of, filling the jobs. Increasing the over 20 male labor force participation rate from 71.7 to 76.2 would add 5 million men to our work force. During the recovery from the recession of the early 1980s the over 20 male labor force participation rate ranged from 78.6 to 78.9. Why do we have so many males not in the workforce today? What changes need to be made to provide a reason for them to return to the workforce?

PS. A recent interesting LTE compared the results of the initial years of the Obama and Trump presidencies. When doing the comparison one should keep in mind that during the first two years of the Obama presidency Democrats had a much larger numerical advantage in Congress than Republicans have under Trump. The Democrats even had a filibuster proof majority for part of Obama's first two years.