Fox Business Host Cites Inflation to Push Back On Economist Steve Moore Praising February Jobs Report

Conservative economist and commentator Steve Moore praised the February jobs report, released on Friday, as “fantastic numbers.”

The United States added 678,000 jobs last month, according to the Department of Labor. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent. That beat projections of 440,000 jobs and 3.9 percent unemployment. In February, 36,000 factory jobs were added, while 654,000 jobs were added in the private sector.

“Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, health care, and construction,” said the department in a news release.

Appearing on Fox Business’ Mornings With Maria, Moore said, “Those are great numbers, I mean, fantastic numbers.”

The year-over-year increase in earnings was 5.1 percent and inflation was 7.5 percent, noted Fox Business’ Dagen McDowell. “Wages are not keeping up with inflation, they’re falling when adjusting for inflation.”

“That’s the problem,” said Moore. “Look, these are great numbers. I love the fact that you’ve got job growth in almost every industry.”

He added, “When you see these gigantic spikes in oil prices, as we’ve seen in the last couple of months, that oftentimes puts a break on growth. Not always but oftentimes it does, so that is something to be very concerned about.”

Watch above, via Fox Business.