Time to Exhale: The Jobs Report May Negate Previous Fears About GDP Drop

What’s the Latest?

This week’s jobs report painted a smile on many an economist’s face when it revealed the economy had added 288,000 jobs in June. This caused the unemployment percentage to drop to six-year low at 6.1%. As The Week’s John Aziz notes, all the trusted barometers of economic prosperity are pointing toward a thriving recovery. The percentage of long-term unemployed is plummeting. The Stock Market continues to climb. Previously tepid sentiments about the recovery’s sustainability have been replaced with a firm confidence from consumers and employers alike.

What’s the Big Idea?

Aziz, The Week’s economics and business correspondent, believes the concerning GDP drop in the first quarter of 2014 was merely a “blip” and that the economy is practically out of danger. In offering contending opinions, he presents a pair of hawk-and-dove rebuttals. Hawks believe the recovery is a phantasm, an optical illusion artificially sustained by Fed policy. Doves agree that the recovery could fail if the Fed gets too overconfident and pulls away the crutches before all the bones have healed. Aziz rejects the hawk-and-dove debate and argues that the adaptive economy will be able to persevere on the back of business innovation.

Aziz’ unbridled enthusiasm seems to throw caution to wind — just ask the millions of Americans who haven’t seen their wages rise in 6 years whether they’re feeling the mirth — but he’s right in saying we should feel confident. Odds are, we’re almost out of it.