Biden sees ‘great progress’ as wages rise
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U.S. President Joe Biden gives remarks about the economy and Labor Department’s September Jobs Report in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium. This speech was delivered in Washington, U.S.A, on October 8, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said the September jobs report reflects “great progress” in getting the U.S. economy back on track after a year and a half of Covid-19 pandemic disruption, even as the overall jobs number came in lower than expected.
Biden declared Friday, “Today, For the First Time Since March of 2020,” the American unemployment rates are below 5%. He made these remarks after Biden’s comments at the White House. His remarks were following earlier releases by the Labor Department of the monthly employment numbers.
September’s unemployment rate fell to 4.8% which is better than the anticipated 5.1%.
He dismissed the most important takeaway for the markets from September’s report. It was the fact that nonfarm payrolls rose only 194,000 compared to the Dow Jones estimate at 500,000.
Biden noted that the monthly averages “bounce around” but that if one looks at the trend, they are solid.
President Obama also called attention to the dramatic increase in wages. Americans who work are also seeing their salaries rise. Biden stated that September saw the greatest increase in the average wage paid to Americans.
Companies use wage increases as a way to counter the ongoing labor shortage. The 0.6% monthly wage growth pushed the year over-year increase to 4.6%
Biden also highlighted the recent fall in long-term joblessness. The post-pandemic returns of workers from hard-hit sectors like leisure and hospitality were a major factor in this drop in long-term unemployment.
We’ve witnessed a decline of 1.3million long-term unemployment in the last three months. This is the greatest three-month decrease in long-term unemployment rates since 1948 when records were first kept,” he stated. He said, “More work to do but great progress.”
Biden’s presidency is in its most difficult stretch yet. While he is trying to get Congress to pass an ambitious economic agenda for the country, his approval ratings are falling sharply over issues such as foreign policy and immigration.
Quinnipiac University poll released this weekOnly 39% of those surveyed agreed with Biden’s economic management, and 55% disagreed.
Effectively, this is flipped starting in May when a Gallup poll found that 57% of AmericansTrusted Biden’s economy handling.
A difficult path lies ahead
Biden’s September Jobs Report provided good news for the White House and Biden on two important economic indicators: higher wages and lower unemployment.
Biden does not see the national labor shortage as threatening the medium-term outlook of the economy. This is despite the assertions by employers and business associations.
He sees higher wages instead as fulfilling the 2020 promises to voters.
He stated that rising wages were a feature of the economic growth that is underway. speech on the economy in May of this year.
However, despite Biden’s optimistic view about job numbers, there are major economic obstacles for the White House between now and December.
One is inflation. Studies show that it is increasing and taking most of the wage gains from workers.
The nation faces another challenge: supply chain disruptions can cause inflation and be a danger to its long-term economic recovery.
Following this week’s high stakes debt ceiling negotiations, which concluded with a short term hike approved by the Senate Thursday night, Congress faces the possibility of default around December 3.
Democrats are hopeful that they can pass their domestic agenda bills on the two tracks by then. One to strengthen the country’s infrastructure, the other to broaden the social safety net, and make it more accessible to working families.
CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed this report
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