Joint Economic Committee Chairman Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., issued the following statement responding to the May jobs report:

"Not only has unemployment dropped to the lowest rate in 18 years, people in the private sector are finally earning more. With nearly one million jobs created since tax reform, we are seeing the positive results of strong economic policy-which is exactly why we should not risk harmful tariffs that can undermine this growth."

Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers are 2.8% higher than 12 months ago, the fastest gain since July 2009. 223,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were created in May. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, the lowest since April 2000.