Conservative Economist Steve Moore Calls Uptick in Unemployment ‘Strange’ Situation, Praises ‘Strong Labor Market’

Conservative economist Steve Moore called the uptick in unemployment a “strange” situation and praised what he called a “strong labor market.”

On Friday, the Department of Labor released the August jobs report.

Non-farm jobs increased by 315,000 in August as the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7 percent. The labor force participation rate in August was 62.4 percent, a 0.3 percentage point increase from the previous month.

“This may be one of those strange situations where an increase in unemployment rate may be a good thing because it did mean that more people will [be] entering workforce, which is something we all want to see,” said Moore on Fox Business shortly after the jobs report was released. “I believe right now it’s a strong labor market no question about it. I mean, if you want a job there, out there, that’s a strong story.”

Moore even welcomed the latest on inflation.

“We’re starting to see inflation come down a bit as well so that’s a welcome story as well,” he said. “I still think the biggest story though right now for businesses is where are the workers. even with this increase in labor force participation rate you’ve got that big gap.” The gap, Moore said, is between wages and inflation with the latter still outpacing the former over the last year.

Watch above via Fox Business.