Biden uses slow jobs report to urge Congress to pass $4.7T in spending
President Biden on Friday pinned the blame for disappointing monthly job-growth figures on the Delta variant of COVID-19 — using the report to urge Congress to pass his proposals for $4.7 trillion in new federal spending.
The US added just 235,000 jobs in August, far short of the 720,000 positions that economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
“There’s no question the Delta variant is why today’s job report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking and I was hoping for a higher number,” Biden said at the White House.
Biden framed the bad news as cause “to finish the job of passing my economic agenda,” which is stalled in Congress as moderate Democrats cite concerns about the national debt and inflation.
“We need Congress to finish the job, to come through for the American people and ensure that the economy continues to gain strength and stability,” Biden said.
Biden on Thursday cited deadly flooding in New York as a different reason to pass the pending spending bills.
House Democrats are slow-walking a Senate-passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in hopes of improving the outlook for a more contentious $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package of tax hikes and social spending that lacks bipartisan support.
In the meantime, Biden urges states to repurpose unused federal COVID-19 relief funds to finance extended boosted unemployment set to end this month. About half of states already cut off the special $300 weekly federal supplement, saying it gave low-wage workers a disincentive to return to their jobs.
The US unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, according to the latest data.
Biden said “even as some of the [unemployment insurance] benefits provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits. And the federal resources from the rescue plan to do so.”
Biden said he would speak more on plans to combat the Delta variant next week — the more contagious mutation has caused US infections to soar, despite widespread vaccination.
“Next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that we’re going to do to combat the Delta variant to address some of those fears and concerns. I want to talk about how we will further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy and our families from the threat of Delta,” he said.
The jobs-growth slowdown was even more pronounced because the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised upward jobs growth in June and July — a more optimistic period of time when Biden had declared a “summer of freedom” before the Delta variant inspired officials to reimpose social restrictions.
The US economy created 1,053,000 jobs in July and added 962,000 positions in June.
Leisure and hospitality, the sectors that in recent months had been leading job gains, saw the biggest slowdown in hiring in August.