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Pittston city administrator accepts job with Cumberland Country

As Labor Secretary, I&rsquo;ve been privileged to visit workplaces across America. Countless workers and business owners I speak to express optimism about their futures and the country&rsquo;s economic footing. Even in occupations and businesses where the coronavirus still presents serious challenges, there&rsquo;s reason for confidence that our economic policies are the right ones to support American workers and a continued recovery. To understand how we got here, it helps to first look back to where we were.
				After the economic crisis of 2008-09, our nation spent years in a long, painful climb out of the Great Recession. It took nearly three years to bring the unemployment rate back under 8.5%. Low income families saw their net worth decline even as high income families got wealthier.
				Experts expected this middling economic performance to continue for years into the future. In the summer of 2016, for example, the Congressional Budget Office predicted only 1.9 million new jobs from January 2017 to early 2020, and a five percent unemployment rate.
				The experts were very, very wrong.
				This administration&rsquo;s economy far exceeded expectations, creating nearly seven million jobs before the pandemic and driving the unemployment rate to 3.5%, a low not seen since 1969. The official poverty rate hit 10.5% last year, the lowest ever recorded, while real median household income grew at its fastest ever year-over-year rate. Wages grew at three percent or higher for more than a year-and-a-half, with low-income earners seeing a 15 percent pay increase from January 2017 to January 2020. And from 2016 to 2019, the net worth of lower income families increased by 32%, while the wealthiest families saw a decline&mdash;a reversal from the previous six years.
				As our economy soared, gains flowed to virtually all Americans. Both the unemployment and poverty rates for African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic-Americans hit record lows last year. Unemployment for Americans with disabilities and those who don&rsquo;t have a high school diploma also hit record lows. Real median earnings increased three times faster for women than for men, and unemployment for adult women hit a nearly 70-year low.
				Of course, the coronavirus sideswiped this record-setting economy. Swift action was needed, and in March, President Trump and Congress came together to provide bipartisan relief to American workers in three landmark bills. At the Labor Department, we oversaw implementation of the new paid sick leave benefit provided in one of those bills, and helped States provide the greatly enhanced unemployment benefits provided in another of the laws. And when Congress failed to extend additional unemployment relief over the summer, the President used FEMA funds to create the Lost Wages Assistance Program to support the unemployed.
				This fast action to fight back the virus and sustain American workers positioned our economy for the recovery we&rsquo;re experiencing now&mdash;and the proof is, again, in the numbers.
				Since April, when businesses across the nation were shuttered to fight the virus, we&rsquo;ve added back 11.4 million jobs. We pushed the unemployment rate below eight percent in five months&mdash;not the three-and&#8211;a-half years it took after the last financial downturn. We continue to see positive reports on crucial economic measures like consumer spending, housing construction, manufacturing growth, and the third quarter&rsquo;s record increase in gross domestic product. Entrepreneurs are filing to create new businesses&mdash;with new jobs&mdash;at rates we haven&rsquo;t seen in more than a decade.
				This promising rebound reflects the strong foundation we built before the pandemic, through policies that prioritized economic freedom and investment in America businesses and American jobs. The administration, and the Department of Labor, will continue supporting Americans who remain out of work because of the virus&mdash;and will continue restoring the economy we enjoyed pre-Covid, by adhering to the policies that built that economy the first time.
				And so, the department will continue combatting unnecessary regulations that impede private sector growth and job creation. We&rsquo;ll keep supporting fair, reciprocal trade agreements like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which levels the playing field for manufacturers and workers in the U.S. And we will continue our efforts to assist workers in attaining rewarding careers, a safe workplace, and a secure retirement.

Their view: Economy is on way back and we will keep it that way