Democratic Party leaders had sharp words for President Donald Trump's economic policies, despite a July jobs report showing the economy continued to grow.
The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs and lower unemployment, according to a report from the Labor Department.
"Donald Trump’s reckless policies continue to hurt millions of hardworking families. Despite the promises Donald Trump made to the American people, Trump's economy isn’t helping most Americans," Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) also criticized Trump's policies, claiming the report shows that only the wealthy and big corporations are benefiting from the Republican tax cuts.
Despite Pelosi's claims, a former Obama economic adviser argued earlier today that wages at the bottom of the pay scale seeing more significant growth. Jason Furman, who chaired President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, "You are actually seeing faster wage growth at the bottom than at the top."
The U.S. economy grew 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, its fastest rate in almost four years. The 157,000 jobs added in July did not meet analyst expectations of 190,000, but the government also revised the June job increase from 213,000 to 248,000.
Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com's senior economic analyst, observed that "upward revisions for May and June take some of the sting out" of the failure to meet expectations in July. "Those revisions give us 59,000 jobs added that we didn’t know we had before."
Pelosi and Perez have criticized past jobs reports that showed favorable numbers for the U.S. economy. In response to the June jobs report, which at the time showed 213,000 jobs added to the economy, Perez insisted "Donald Trump’s reckless policies are hurting millions of hardworking families" and Pelosi said "the American people deserve so much better than the raw deal they are getting from the cynical Republican special interest agenda." Pelosi similarly hammered the May jobs report, which showed 223,000 additional jobs, referring to Trump's policies as "reckless."