On Labor Day, President Biden touted his economic record in an effort to paint the economy as on an upswing. He took credit for falling inflation and job growth boasting that his record on the latter beats that of his predecessor, President Donald Trump.  

Yet, again he trotted out a discredited claim about the number of jobs he has created while in office. In a Philadelphia speech before a largely union-member crowd, President Biden noted:  

“Nearly 13 million 500 thousand jobs just since you got me sworn in — in January of 2020 [2021]. Eight hundred thousand new manufacturing jobs. But you wouldn’t know it from all the negative news you hear. But we’re getting through: This one of the greatest job creation periods in American history. For real. That’s a fact.”
President Biden

False. Completely make believe.

President Biden’s claim is largely discredited.

Cumulatively, somewhere around 13.5 million jobs have been added since January 2021. However, most of those were recovered jobs in that they returned after pandemic closures and restrictions came to an end. Across industries, people were rehired when their shuttered workplaces were reopened or after remote workers began to return to their offices. According to congressional analysis, that amounted to a whopping over 70% of the jobs in 2021.

Context is critical in explaining both the sudden loss of jobs and their fast recovery. Unemployment didn’t suddenly spike for no reason. The pandemic and government mandates on public and private employers forced shutdowns that triggered the loss of tens of millions of jobs. An unprecedented 20 million jobs were lost in the first days of the pandemic alone. 

The job rebound in 2021 was remarkable, but that was bound to happen no matter who was in office. President Biden wants to take credit for the latter while blaming his predecessor for the former. That is disingenuous at best.

Job growth has been slowing for months as jobs lost during the first year of the pandemic have recovered. Over the past few months, job numbers have been revised down. The monthly average jobs gain has slowed to a modest 150,000 jobs, down from an average gain of 238,000 in March through May.

We are glad that hard-working Americans have been able to regain their footing in the economy. President Biden should celebrate that rather than making false claims to boost perceptions of his Bidenomics agenda which is not resonating with Americans.