According to new reports from the FBI and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States is seeing hugely positive trend lines continue—falling crime and job growth.
CRIME
For their final annual report covering over 94% of the country’s population, the FBI announced this week that violent crime declined across the country last year, including a dramatic drop in the number of murders—down nearly 12% from 2022 to 2023—the largest decline in decades.
The reported number of rapes also dropped significantly, by more than 9%, while property crime decreased an estimated 2.4%.
Last year, the FBI said in its report, “every city agency covering a population of 1,000,000 or more inhabitants contributed a full 12 months of data” to the bureau’s crime reporting program, according to CNN.
Furthermore, crime rates continued dropping from January to June in 2024, says a new preliminary report:
“A comparison of data from agencies that voluntarily submitted at least three or more common months of data for January through June 2023 and 2024 indicates reported violent crime decreased by 10.3%. Murder decreased by 22.7%, rape decreased by 17.7%, robbery decreased by 13.6%, and aggravated assault decreased by 8.1%. Reported property crime also decreased by 13.1%.”
When talking to reporters, a senior FBI official defended its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which includes more than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies, saying that the bureau’s methodology “has been consistent for decades.”
JOB GROWTH SURGES, AS WAGES CLIMB
A blockbuster jobs report on Friday showed the US economy created 254,000 new jobs in September—blowing past economists’ predictions—while revising upward their estimates of the two previous months.
Most of the new jobs were created in food and beverage services (+69,000), health care (+45,000), government (+31,000), social assistance (+27,000), and construction (+25,000).
And, people may find more money in their pocket because, over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings in the US have increased by 4 percent, well above inflation which is now back down to pre-pandemic levels.
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The annual inflation rate over the last 12 months ending in August was 2.5%, compared to 3.4% in the previous year, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on September 11.
Stock markets surged on the good news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 341 points on Friday, to hit yet another all-time closing high of 42,352.
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