President Joe Biden says his American Rescue Plan and vaccine campaign are to thank for the recovering jobs market, with unemployment claims hitting a 52-year low Wednesday.
Weekly unemployment claims dropped to 199,000 for the week ending on Nov. 13, a decrease of 71,000. Jobless claims are now under pre-pandemic levels, setting a new record for the fewest weekly claims since November 1969. Biden credited his COVID-19 agenda for the recovery just hours after the Labor Department announced the numbers. (RELATED: Obama Economic Alums Turn On Biden’s Spending Spree)
“Last year, there were 21 million unemployment insurance claims before the Thanksgiving holiday. Today, there were 2.4 million,” Biden said in a statement. “This is a historic jobs recovery: 5.6 million jobs created since I took office and an unemployment rate of 4.6% — two full years earlier than experts predicted was possible. More Americans are getting back to work and more Americans have money in their pockets, thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the vaccination campaign.”
U.S. initial jobless claims fall to the lowest in decades. pic.twitter.com/ufLMQ3Sv5j
— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) November 24, 2021
Despite the strong labor numbers, Biden’s administration has struggled to dissociate itself and its policies with record-breaking inflation in recent months. Republicans and some former Obama administration officials have argued that Biden’s large spending bills are exacerbating inflation, which is currently at its highest point in 30 years.
Both Biden’s infrastructure bill and his Build Back Better Act have passed through Congress in recent weeks, amounting to more than $3 trillion in spending.
A majority of Americans have been forced to change their holiday plans due to inflation, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Trafalgar Group and Convention of States.
A total of 52% of those polled stated that inflated prices have forced them to change plans, with 31.3% saying they have been “significantly” impacted and 20.7% saying they have been “somewhat” impacted.