When the May jobs report dropped last Friday, I wrote that the Biden administration was cherrypicking the numbers they liked while ignoring the troubling ones, especially on a substantial rise in unemployment claims. I also predicted (in the link below) that this wouldn’t be the last we would hear about the statistics’ drag on the American economy, which is only made worse by Team Biden’s bad grasp of fostering growth in the private sector–and being straightforward about what’s really happening in the economy.
Read related:
Labor Dept.’s May Jobs Report Boasts Jump in Employment, but Downplays Dismal Unemployment Numbers
As a reminder, here’s what the Labor Department report said (via the Hill, with my emphasis):
The U.S. economy added 272,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate ticked slightly up to 4 percent, according to new Labor Department data released Friday.
The May jobs report was far hotter than the expectations of economists, who projected a gain of 185,000 jobs and no movement from the April jobless rate of 3.9 percent.
The slight increase in the jobless rate, however, ends the longest streak of sub-4 percent unemployment since the 1960s.
Even Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell might have been throwing shade at the White House, in his comments this week, after announcing that the group would wait on any change to interest rates.
Read related:
PAIN: ‘Bidenomics’ Strikes Again As Fed Makes Interest Rate Announcement
In a clip making the rounds on Thursday, Powell didn’t call out Biden or the Labor Department explicitly, but it’s easy enough to read through the lines:
Fed Chair Jerome Powell says recent jobs data “may be a bit overstated” 😬 pic.twitter.com/akVdAf8aOU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 12, 2024
He said, “More than that, you’ve got strong job creation, you have payroll jobs still coming in strong, even though there’s an argument they may be a bit overstated.”
I think he was being sly here, and might as well have been wagging a finger at Biden’s economics “experts,” people like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said something during a new CNBC sit-down that strains credulity for many Americans right now:
Janet Yellen just essentially did a commercial for President Trump on the economy.
Amazing moment of honesty from her.
She confirms that prices were much better under Trump and that Americans know it.
Well done Yellen!pic.twitter.com/jdooHRzgkQ
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) June 13, 2024
All Americans, both those who are well-off and those who are near the bottom of the income distribution, are better off now.
The X user isn’t wrong; the Trump campaign and its supporters would be smart to use that in as many ads as possible.
Anyway, the Biden administration can insist all it wants that the economy is great and the jobs market is booming. But it must come across as tone-deaf for most people who struggle to keep a roof over their family’s heads and provide food for the dinner table.
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So Long, Petrodollar: US-Saudi Arabian Agreement Ends After Fifty Years
