President Joe Biden dismissed concerns after September’s disappointing jobs report, telling the nation Friday that “real progress” is being made.
The U.S. economy added 194,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.8%, according to statistics from the Department of Labor. The 194,000 jobs number is the smallest since December 2020, but Biden focused on the unemployment rate dropping during his remarks and largely downplayed concerns over the consistently underperforming reports.
As he did in August, the president sought to blame COVID-19, highlighting how Friday’s report “is based on a survey that was taken during the week of September 13.”
“Not today, September the 13, when COVID cases were average more than 150,000 per day,” Biden said, later touting the number of vaccinations in the country. “Since then, we’ve seen the daily cases fall by more than one-third and they’re continuing to trend down and we’re continuing to make progress.”
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“Right now, things in Washington, as you all know, are awfully noisy. Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation,” the president added. “Every disagreement is a crisis. But when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress. Maybe it doesn’t seem fast enough. I’d like to see it faster and we’re going to make it faster. Maybe it doesn’t appear dramatic enough. … We’re making consistent and steady progress, though.”
Biden noted that the black unemployment rate fell alongside the overall unemployment rate, touted the “job creation in the first eight months of” his administration and claimed that the trend Americans are seeing “is solid.”
With this glass half-full focus, Biden also shifted focus during his speech and touted his legislative agenda. The president has been pushing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his Build Back Better agenda, although his own party has clashed over contents of the latter bill and its price tag. (RELATED: White House Won’t Stop Claiming Biden’s Spending Plans ‘Costs $0’)
“We need to stay focused on what these bills mean for the people, who are just looking for a little bit of breathing room, a fair chance to build a decent middle-class life, to succeed and thrive instead of just hanging on by their fingernails,” Biden said, taking no questions from the press following his remarks.
The Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh echoed Biden’s positive claims on CNN after the jobs report came out, saying there are “bright spots” to be seen from the news. White House press secretary Jen Psaki made similar comments, as well, touting the unemployment numbers and claiming that the trends are positive.
“This is not all doom and gloom here today,” Walsh said before admitting the country isn’t where the administration would like it to be. “Certainly, we know, I would love to be on this show saying we added 3 million jobs to the economy and now we can go on to something else, but unfortunately we’re still – we’re not there yet.”
