Gary Cohn, the former No. 2 at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, says Friday’s robust jobs report “reaffirms everything that we're trying to do" with economic-growth policies.
U.S. employers added a robust 235,000 jobs in February and raised pay at a healthy pace, evidence that the economy remains on solid footing nearly eight years after the Great Recession ended, the AP reported.
The unemployment rate dipped to a low 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. More people began looking for jobs, increasing the proportion of Americans working or looking for work to the highest level in nearly a year.
February's job gains were boosted by 58,000 additional construction positions, the most in nearly a decade. That figure was likely enhanced by unseasonably warm weather in much of the nation.
In addition to beating consensus estimates of 190,000, the job creation came in some unusual places, with construction and manufacturing leading the way.
During his campaign, Trump promised to bring back those kinds of jobs. To do so, he pledged lower taxes, a rollback in regulations and $1 trillion in infrastructure spending, CNBC explained.
"We're very excited about what's ahead of us," Cohn told CNBC.
Cohn said the White House has been holding meetings with CEOs to figure out the best way to enact his pro-growth agenda.
"We had a large group in here two days into the White House talking about infrastructure, talking about the enormous need," he said. "We have underinvested in our infrastructure in the last 50 to 60 years in the U.S.," Cohn said.
"We want to protect American jobs, we really do," he said. "We want to bring jobs back to America, so anything we can do to incentivize manufacturers to come back to America, that's important to us."
Friday's report was the first to cover a full month under President Donald Trump.
Trump shared a Drudge Report tweet claiming the 235,000 figure means America is already "great again."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted: "Great news for American workers: economy added 235,000 new jobs, unemployment rate drops to 4.7 percent in first report for @POTUS Trump."
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(Newsmax wire services AP and Bloomberg contributed to this report).
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