Throughout President Joe Biden’s tenure, a consistent pattern has emerged. On the initial Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals positive news about the American job market. However, Republican leaders consistently choose to overlook these encouraging reports.
There have been several positive developments in the U.S. economy recently. Since January 2021, over 16 million jobs have been created. Additionally, there have been 40 consecutive months of job gains, and the unemployment rate in the United States has remained below 4% for 27 consecutive months, a feat not seen since the 1960s. By most measures, the job market under President Biden is the strongest it has ever been for most Americans.
However, the most recent report was not as robust as previous ones. Preliminary data for April showed an addition of 175,000 jobs, causing the unemployment rate to tick up from 3.8% to 3.9%. Seizing on this data, former President Donald Trump, who had previously dismissed Biden-era job numbers as “fake,” claimed that the White House is “destroying” the country.
Trump took to social media to label the latest data as “HORRIBLE.” However, adding 175,000 jobs per month to the economy is far from horrible. While it may have fallen short of expectations, characterizing it as a disaster is an exaggeration, especially considering that this preliminary figure will likely be revised.
Furthermore, the unemployment rate increasing from 3.83% to 3.87% is not indicative of the country being “destroyed.” In fact, a 3.9% jobless rate is still remarkable. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the unemployment rate never fell below 4%. Under Biden, it has remained below 4% for over two years.
It's worth noting that when Trump left office, the jobless rate was 6.4%, and few would have predicted it could fall to 3.4% within two years. Yet, that is precisely what happened.
Putting aside the specifics of the numbers, it's essential to consider Trump’s own standards. In January 2018, he claimed that the economy was better than it had been in many decades, despite only 146,000 jobs being created that month. Similarly, in July 2018, he declared that the U.S. had the greatest economy in its history, despite only 55,000 jobs being created that month.
In Trump’s first year in office, the average number of jobs created per month was 176,000, almost identical to the tally from last month. Even across the first three years of his term, before the onset of Covid, the average was 177,000, again, nearly identical to the recent tally which he criticized.
Comparing the job creation numbers, roughly 6.3 million jobs were created in Trump’s first three years, while roughly 14.7 million jobs were created in Biden’s first three years.
To take the Republican rhetoric about job growth seriously, one would have to ignore a significant amount of relevant information and forget about Trump’s own record.