Blue collar boom'? Not quite.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump declared that ordinary workers have seen a "blue-collar boom" during his tenure. That's partly true. But his suggestion that the bottom 50% of income-earners are faring better financially than the top 1% does not hold up to scrutiny.
The average wealth of a worker making the median wage or less has risen by a total of $4,000 in the three years since Mr. Trump took office. The average wealth increase for those in the top 1%? That's up $2.2 million.
Another claim from Mr. Trump in the State of the Union: Wages for lower paid workers have risen 16% since his election. That's true. But most of that increase owes to other factors, including a move by many states to hike their minimum wage.
Mr. Trump's speech depicted the economy as firing on all cylinders, especially for working-class Americans. That description is off the mark for the manufacturing sector, historically a key source of employment for less-educated workers.
After booming in 2018, manufacturers narrowly avoided a recession last year, hurt by Mr. Trump's trade fights with China and other countries. Since he entered office in 2017, the number of manufacturing jobs also has expanded more slowly than the broader labor market. The result: Manufacturers today account for a slightly smaller share of employment than they did in 2016.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/blue-collar-boom-not-quite-mr-president/ar-BBZEkSV?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=hplocalnews
