The U.S. economy added 313,000 jobs last month.
The U.S. economy added 313,000 jobs in February, more than in any other month of the Trump administration so far, and the most in any month since July 2016.
Meanwhile, the American labor force increased by 806,000, experiencing its biggest monthly growth since January, 2003. The labor-force-participation rate jumped very slightly to 63 percent.
The Trump administration has touted tax reform, its only major legislative victory so far, as part of the reason for the economy’s growth.
“Your taxes are going way down. And right now, for the first time in a long time…factories are coming back, everything’s coming back,” Trump said last month while visiting an Ohio manufacturing company. “America is once again open for business.”
The president has also talked up his administration’s deregulation efforts as a boost to the economy. Last year, he announced the end of the “never-ending growth of red tape in America,” saying he wanted to return to the 1960 level of bare-bones regulation. The White House has already taken significant strides toward that goal, scrapping or delaying over 1,500 regulations in Trump’s first year.