Stacey Abrams claimed in the official Democratic Party response to the State of the Union that Trump’s tax bill had triggered plant closings and layoffs, and that wages weren’t keeping up with inflation.
“The Republican tax bill rigged the system against working people. Rather than bringing back jobs, plants are closing, layoffs are looming and wages struggle to keep pace with the actual cost of living,” Abrams claimed.
In fact, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time, a proxy for layoffs, fell to a five-decade low last month and has been low ever since taxes were cut.
The country created an average of 223,000 jobs in 2018, more than twice as many as it would need to create to keep up with population growth. Over the last three months, it has averaged 241,000 new jobs created.
And wages are not struggling to keep pace with inflation. Much to the surprise of many economists, inflation has remained tame despite very low unemployment. In fact, inflation has weakened in recent months while wage growth has accelerated. Wages are now easily beating inflation.
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