CNBC’s Cramer on huge job gains: ‘There’s an optimism in the country’ versus what is reported

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday that the June Labor report underscores “an optimism in this country” that isn’t often reported in the media.

“There’s an optimism in the country that I think often is not shared with people who are on air, and that’s only because we don’t see the hiring. But people are hiring,” Cramer said on the CNBC morning program “Squawk Box.” “Frankly, I found it astonishing versus what we hear.”

“Frankly, I found it astonishing,” @MadMoneyOnCNBC‘s @JimCramer says about the “remarkable” June jobs report. https://t.co/mThlRMVeI2 pic.twitter.com/cUcRp6mhlX

— CNBC (@CNBC) July 2, 2020

“We’re not where we thought we’d be, say, eight weeks ago,” Cramer added later. “We had a strong economy before. We’re seeing the strength again.”

The commentary from the “Mad Money” host comes after the U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs last month, well above expectations that 1 million to 3 million jobs would be added to the nation’s economy in June.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its estimate for May, saying 2.7 million jobs were added that month.

Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent, which is well below the 20 percent some analysts were projecting for the end of the second fiscal quarter.

The hiring comes as new COVID-19 cases surge in parts of the country, with more than 50,000 being added on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. States seeing the largest case increases include Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.

“The only thing that can really stop [this market] is if the employment in restaurant and travel and leisure and sports can’t come back because we can’t get control of the pandemic,” Cramer cautioned.

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Journal of the American Medical Association that younger people are now accounting for a much higher number of COVID-19 cases.

“I think it’s pretty obvious … that we are not going in the right direction,” Fauci said Thursday. “We need to realize that if we do not adhere to the guidelines as we’re trying to open, and I don’t mean officially, I mean the citizenry, the people that are out there, we’re going to be in some serious difficulty.”