Claim:
The US economy added 15 million jobs between US President Joe Biden's inauguration and February 2024.
Evaluation:
What's true?
As the U.S. economy continued to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 14.9 million jobs were created. However …
What is wrong?
About 9 million of those jobs were lost during the pandemic, so the net gain in jobs from pre-pandemic levels was 5.5 million.
In March 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the White House and Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the U.S. economy had added nearly 15 million jobs under U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and that the unemployment rate had been below 4% as of February 2022. the “longest route in more than 50 years”. This is what the White House Facebook post said:
Almost 15 million new jobs in just three years.
Unemployment has been below 4% for the longest time in over 50 years.
Record 16 million new business applications.
Wages continue to rise and inflation continues to fall.
President Biden is growing the economy from the center out and from the bottom up.
Harris' post on
(@KamalaHarris / X)
While 142.9 million people were employed in January 2021, when Biden took office, that number rose to 157.8 million in February 2024, according to preliminary figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose figures are regularly reviewed. This corresponds to an increase of 14.9 million jobs. However, this number is somewhat misleading.
Employment levels before the pandemic
In February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, 152.3 million people were employed. Two months later, that number had fallen by 21.9 million to 130.4 million. When former President Donald Trump left office, more than half of those jobs had been restored.
It took another 17 months, until June 2022, for the U.S. economy to regain the remaining 9 million jobs lost during the pandemic. From this perspective, the actual net gain during the Biden administration in February 2024 was 5.5 million jobs, not 14.9 million. This is based on our calculations using figures from the BLS.
Signs of a strong economy
However, the data shows that the US economy overall has been strong under Biden. For example, the government reported that 275,000 new jobs were added to the economy in February 2024 compared to the previous month, a figure that exceeds the estimated 200,000, according to Bloomberg. While the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%, it remained below 4% for two years, something not seen since 1967.
Additionally, the economy grew 3.1% in 2023, a year that 85% of economists in a survey expected would end in a recession. Given these numbers, many believed at the time of writing that growth could take longer than forecast to slow.
Sources
“Analysis-Stable Fed Outlook Strengthens Stock Market's Hopes for Coveted 'Soft Landing'”. Yahoo Finance, March 21, 2024, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-steady-fed-outlook-boosts-060244874.html.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001. Accessed March 21, 2024.
“By the Numbers: The U.S. economy added over 275,000 jobs in February, exceeding expectations.” U.S. Department of Commerce, March 8, 2024, https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2024/03/ numbers-us-economy-adds-over-275000-jobs-february-exceeding-expectations.
Goodkind, by Alicia Wallace, Elisabeth Buchwald, Bryan Mena and Nicole from CNN. “Live Updates: Another shockingly good jobs report shows America's economy is booming”. CNN, February 2, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/jobs-report-january-02-02-24/index.html.
Guida, Victoria. “US growth exceeds expectations, strengthening Biden’s economic position.” Politico, January 25, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/25/biden-administration-economic-growth-inflation- decrease-00137777.
“Why were so many economists so wrong about the recession?” Bloomberg.Com, December 26, 2023. www.bloomberg.com, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-26/ what-recession-how-so-many-economists-got-it -so wrong.
In the USA, 275,000 new jobs were created in February and the unemployment rate is 3.9%. March 8, 2024. www.bloomberg.com, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-03-08/us-adds-275-000-jobs-in-feb-unemployment-rate-at -3-9 video.
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