December Jobs Report: Unemployment Rate Is the Lowest in 50 Years

The U.S. labor force is starting 2023 on a high note, with unemployment reaching its lowest point in 50 years in December, according to a report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nonfarm payrolls added 223,000 jobs in December, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.468 percent, the lowest level since 1969 (albeit by a very slim margin, the third decimal point). Comparatively, the unemployment rate in February 2020—just before the pandemic began in earnest in the United States—was 3.5 percent. In December 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent.

The sectors that added the most jobs were leisure and hospitality, health care, and construction. Employment in retail held steady, while state education employment declined by 24,000 jobs. University employees have gone on strike in recent months over workplace conditions. One of the biggest demonstrations took place throughout the entire University of California system and saw tens of thousands of academic workers walk out to demand pay increases.

The low unemployment rate isn’t the only piece of good news: The national average gas price, a sore spot for President Joe Biden, has also fallen lower than in January 2022.

National gas prices have dipped lower than they were a year ago. As of Friday, the national average price per gallon was $3.30, according to AAA.

Both the employment gains and the falling gas prices are huge wins for Biden, who has been under fire since he took office for sky-high inflation and unemployment, first due to Covid-19 and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Inflation finally seems to be cooling, as well, and the Federal Reserve eased off its massive rate hikes at its December policy-setting meeting. The U.S. central bank is eager to achieve a so-called soft landing, or a decrease in inflation without tipping the economy into a recession.

The fact that the labor market has remained strong overall has caused concerns that the economy has not slowed sufficiently to avoid a downturn, but Dean Baker, the senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, put the chances of a recession at “less than 50 percent.”

“I think the overall picture suggests the economy can keep growing at a healthy pace,” he said of the December jobs report, but that will depend on the Fed maintaining a slower pace with rate hikes.

On January 6, 2021, Senator Josh Hawley was caught on camera running from the same incursion he helped cause. Two years later, as Hawley has continued running from culpability for his role in the attack on the Capitol, he now faces his own democratic challenge. Friday morning—January 6, 2023—populist Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce announced his bid to unseat Hawley.

In his announcement, Kunce took Hawley to task for much more than inciting January 6. Hawley was sent to a “fancy prep school” by his “banker daddy,” while Kunce’s family relied on their neighbors “to survive bankruptcy and medical bills.” Hawley joined an elite corporate law firm after graduation, while Kunce joined the Marines. Hawley supported anti-labor “right-to-work” laws, while Kunce posits himself as a committed anti-monopolist. Hawley had initially voted “no” on a bill to ease health care access for veterans exposed to burn pits; Kunce, who had been exposed to burn pits himself, rallied the cause for the bill.

Kunce told The New Republic that the hardships he faced are a large part of why he’s involved in politics. “When my little sister was born and had an open heart surgery, my family went bankrupt. We made it because the people in that neighborhood came by our house, brought us more tuna casseroles than we could eat.”

Kunce first ran for office in 2022, vying to fill Republican Roy Blunt’s vacant seat. In a crowded Democratic primary, Kunce lost to late-entrant and Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine, who then went on to lose the general election to Republican Eric Schmitt by 13.5 points. The primary still displayed Kunce’s formidability. Valentine, whose assets were worth as much as $214.7 million, largely self-funded her own $3.4 million campaign. Meanwhile, Kunce fundraised $4.6 million, more than half of which came from donations smaller than $200.

Kunce’s candidacy offers Democrats of all stripes the opportunity to rally behind someone who could truly give Hawley a run for his money (no pun intended). Missouri went for Trump by 15 points in 2020, but Hawley only beat Claire McCaskill by about six points in 2018. Kunce’s résumé and unhesitating will to expose Hawley as the faux-populist he is—and connect him to everything wrong with America—might be enough to make this race a contest.

“Generally, everyday people do the right things. You see that on ballot measures, and neighbors helping each other out,” Kunce said, referring to the success of statewide initiatives to legalize marijuana, reject right-to-work laws, increase the minimum wage, and expand Medicaid. His goal, Kunce said, is to give power back to, and trust, everyday people. “That’s the exact opposite of Josh Hawley—this guy’s all about power for himself. We’re launching on January 6 because it’s a great example of what a fraud he is. When he thought it was gonna bring him power, he’s raising his fist, he’s riling everybody up, and then the second shit gets real and hits the fan, he’s running for the exits.”

What has Kunce been doing while preparing for his Senate run? “I’ve been rereading Lord of the Rings,” he said, reminiscing of his mother taking him to the library as a kid for free entertainment. “Kinda nerdy, but hey, I play Magic: The Gathering, no shame.” He’s also been listening to his country favorites: Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. “And for TV, I did just watch Wednesday. I thought it was really good.”

This post has been updated.

Kevin McCarthy has broken yet another record for the sheer number of times he’s lost his bid for House speaker. We are now entering territory not seen since before the Civil War.

The House entered its tenth round of voting on Thursday, after McCarthy lost the seventh, eighth, and ninth rounds. The last time at least 10 ballots were needed to pick a House speaker was in 1859, when Republican William Pennington was finally elected on the forty-fourth ballot. In all of Congress’s history, there have only been 14 floor fights where more than two ballots were needed to confirm the House speaker. The longest one took 133 rounds of voting.

McCarthy has not gained any votes in the last three days, despite reportedly making major concessions Wednesday evening to the 20 Republicans opposing his bid. He even reportedly promised a one-member “motion to vacate,” meaning only one House member could force a vote to oust the speaker. (Currently, five members are required.) Instead, McCarthy has lost three votes since the first round.

But he has shown no sign of backing down.

Kevin Hern is the newest Republican nominee for speaker, as Kevin McCarthy continues losing his bid for the gavel.

Representative Lauren Boebert nominated the Oklahoma representative in the ninth round of voting on Thursday, claiming he can be the one to “unify the party.” Hern, for his part, voted once again for McCarthy in the ninth round of voting.

A McDonald’s franchise tycoon, Hern first joined Congress in 2018 and is estimated to be one of its richest members, with reported assets worth as much as $142.7 million. He offloaded shares in 12 different oil and gas companies while serving on the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. He also bought between $300,000 and $615,000 in shares of UnitedHealth Group while sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Medicare issues.

In 2021, Hern failed to properly disclose nearly two dozen stock transactions, altogether worth as much as $2.7 million, violating the STOCK Act, which mandates congressional stock transparency. Hern has also called for increasing defense funding, while being an investor in Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which manufacture weapons that have been sent to Ukraine.

Not to be limited to financial corruption, Hern was one of the 126 Republicans who signed onto a lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In July 2021, Hern was one of just 16 members (all Republicans) to vote against a bipartisan bill to expand and ease immigration processes for Afghan allies of the United States military during its invasion of Afghanistan. Hern was also among a group of Republicans who voted against a bill that sought to expand health care services to military veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their careers. And if that all wasn’t enough, Hern wrote an August 2022 op-ed against drug pricing controls.

Though perhaps it’s unlikely that Hern will actually become speaker, he represents the Republican Party just as sufficiently as the next candidate.

The new year can be a significant time for many: of change, of resolve, of recognizing where one fell short and where they could grow. But apparently not for Israel. Israeli forces have now killed four young Palestinians in 2023; in other words, almost as many Palestinians dead as there have been days in the new year.

On Thursday, Israeli forces shot 16-year-old Amer Abu Zaytoon during a raid on Nablus in the West Bank. According to journalist Bakr Abdelhaq, residents said Abu Zaytoon was shot while walking in a refugee camp raided by the forces.

“There were armed clashes. They besieged the home of former prisoner Hassan Araysheh and then proceeded to raid it and beat family members inside, before arresting him,” Abdelhaq told Al Jazeera.

On Tuesday morning, Israeli forces killed 15-year-old Adam Issam Shaker Ayyad during a raid on Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. Ayyad was the victim of yet another Israeli raid on a refugee camp; the young boy apparently studied at a U.N.-funded school in the Dheisheh camp.

On Monday morning, Israeli forces killed two more young men in a raid in the town of Kufr Dan: Mohammad Samer Hoshiyeh, 22, and Fouad Mohammad Abed, 25. At least three others were injured in the raid, including one in critical condition.

These four young Palestinians are only part of the ongoing violence Palestinains face; headline statistics don’t always include the thousands injured or the masses of demolished homes.

Last year, Israeli forces killed at least 171 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year since the U.N. began tracking. The rate so far in 2023 outpaces that.

And without further global pressure on Israel’s insistent campaign against Palestinian people, there looks to be no slowing down for their seemingly hardened resolve. The most far-right Israeli government ever has just been sworn in. A coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the fifth government in four years boasts ministers like new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been convicted in the past for inciting racism and support for a terrorist group, and new Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a self-proclaimed “proud homophobe” who has advocated a “shoot to kill” approach when dealing with Palestinian children throwing stones.