Well, thank you very much, Klaus. And a very special congratulations on your 50th year hosting the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. A truly amazing achievement. It’s an honour to address the distinguished members of this organization for the second time as President. When I spoke at this forum two years ago, I told you that we had launched the great American comeback.
Today, I’m proud to declare that the United States is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before. We’ve regained our stride, we discovered our spirit and reawakened the powerful machinery of American enterprise. America is thriving, America is flourishing, and yes, America is winning again like never before.
Just last week alone, the United States concluded two extraordinary trade deals: the agreement with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — the two biggest trade deals ever made. They just happened to get done in the same week. These agreements represent a new model of trade for the 21st century — agreements that are fair, reciprocal, and that prioritize the needs of workers and families.
America’s economic turnaround has been nothing short of spectacular. When I took office three years ago, America’s economy was in a rather dismal state. Under the previous administration, nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs had vanished, wages were flat or falling, almost 5 million more Americans had left the labour force than had gotten jobs, and more than 10 million people had been added to the food stamp rolls.
The experts predicted a decade of very, very slow growth — or even maybe negative growth — high unemployment, and a dwindling workforce, and very much a shrinking middle class. Millions of hardworking, ordinary citizens felt neglected, betrayed, forgotten. They were rapidly losing faith in the system. Before my presidency began, the outlook for many nations was bleak.
Top economists warned of a protracted worldwide recession. The World Bank lowered its projections for global growth to a number that nobody wanted to even think about. Pessimism had taken root deep in the minds of leading thinkers, business leaders, and policymakers. Yet despite all of the cynics, I had never been more confident in America’s future.
I knew we were on the verge of a profound economic resurgence if we did things right — one that would generate a historic wave of investment, wage growth, and job creation. I knew that if we unleashed the potential of our people, if we cut taxes, slashed regulations — and we did that at a level that’s never been done before in the history of our country, in a short period of time — fixed broken trade deals and fully tapped American energy, that prosperity would come thundering back at a record speed.
And that is exactly what we did, and that is exactly what happened. Since my election, America has gained over 7 million jobs — a number unthinkable. I wouldn’t say it, I wouldn’t talk about it, but that was a number that I had in mind. The projection was 2 million; we did 7 — more than three times the government’s own projections.
The unemployment rate is now less than 3, 4, and 5 percent. And at 3.5 percent, that’s a number that is the lowest in more than 50 years. The average unemployment rate for my administration is the lowest for any U.S. President in recorded history. We started off with a reasonably high rate. For the first time in decades, we are no longer simply concentrating wealth in the hands of a few.
We’re concentrating and creating the most inclusive economy ever to exist. We are lifting up Americans of every race, colour, religion, and creed. Unemployment rates among African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans have all reached record lows. African American youth unemployment has reached the lowest it’s ever been in the history of our country.
African American poverty has plummeted to the lowest rate ever recorded. The unemployment rate for women reached the lowest level since 1953. And women now comprise a majority of the American workforce; that’s for the first time. The unemployment rate for veterans has dropped to a record low. The unemployment rate for disabled Americans has reached an all-time record low.
Workers without a high school diploma have achieved the lowest unemployment rate recorded in U.S. history. Wages are rising across the board. And those at the bottom of the income ladder are enjoying the percentage, by far, largest gains. Workers’ wages are now growing faster than management wages. Earnings growth for the bottom 10 percent is outpacing the top 10 percent — something that has not happened.
Paychecks for high school graduates are rising faster than for college graduates. Young Americans just entering the workforce are also sharing in America’s extraordinary prosperity. Since I took office, more than 2 million millennials have gotten jobs, and their wages have grown by nearly 5 percent annually — a number that was unthinkable.
Nobody would have ever thought it was possible three years ago. A record number of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are now working. In the eight years before I took office, over 300,000 working-age people left the workforce. In just three years in my administration, 3.5 million people have joined the workforce.