President Joe Biden loves to take credit where it isn’t due on the economy.
“Americans are back to work,” he said Friday of the latest jobs report, citing “record job-creation” and “record wage gains.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nominal wage gains since Biden took office have been wiped out by sky-high inflation, now around 8%. All jobs now come with a built-in pay cut that’s only going to get worse unless the prez changes course. Worse, employment will crater if he gets the tax hikes he proposes.
And he and his administration have not created a single job, as the nearby chart shows.
In February of 2020, the nation had around 152.5 million total nonfarm employees (the highest number ever). Then came the pandemic, which chopped that number down to near 130.5 million.
We’ve since been creeping back up to where we were before — and creeping more slowly as Biden’s policies took effect. And we’re still not there yet: The latest count is 150.9 million total nonfarm employees.
So we’re still significantly short of that 152.5 million peak — which means there’s been no job creation, only an anaemic recovery.
State-level data? Also ugly. The vast majority of US states haven’t recovered their pandemic job losses. New York is missing 454,000 jobs, with New York City missing 283,000. California has a deficit of around 677,000. Both states have unemployment rates well above the national rate.
Under President Donald Trump, the economy actually did add jobs pre-pandemic. Close to 9 million, in fact, from January 2016 to January 2020. And the median household saw historic wage gains (the 7% annual increase in 2019 was the biggest on record).
Even if we’re using the idiotic Biden standard for jobs “created” (i.e., COVID-killed jobs returning as the pandemic fades), Trump “created” almost 12 million between April 2020 and December 2020. Biden’s much-touted “creation” of 7.9 million is much less, over much more time.
“Our economy,” Biden blustered on Friday, “is no longer on the mend — it’s on the move.”
Pure hot air. The numbers don’t lie. Our jobs picture is improving too slowly and workers are seeing their gains erode daily, with gas, groceries, rent and everything else going through the roof.
Grim reality may not stop Biden from patting himself on the back for his fake achievements, but his collapsing poll numbers show Americans believe their own eyes, not his bull.
