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Mika Brzezinski Breaks Bad News On Jobs Report Straight To Psaki’s Face, Live On-Air

[MSNBC/Screenshot]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski had to break the bad news to White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday morning that the November jobs report fell extremely short of expectations.

“Jobs number just crossed, 210 jobs just added, so 210,000, so if we look at that breaking news right now, that’s a number that feels a little what? A little off?” Brzezinski asked the press secretary live, on-air.

WATCH:

“Well I know this sounds a little archaic but I can’t comment on them until 9:30 a.m., by rules. But I will say, what people can expect the president to continue to say, today, month to month, is that what we’re seeing are good trends. That we are continuing to put people back to work, that we are continuing to see participation in the workforce, that we are continuing to see the unemployment rate go down,” Psaki replied.

“But there’s more we need to do to address core problems that have existed long before the pandemic,” she continued. (RELATED: Americans See ‘Poor Leadership’ In Government As A Bigger Problem Than The Pandemic)

The economy added 210,000 jobs in November, marking the fewest in a single month since President Joe Biden took office. The number fell far below economists’ estimate of 573,000, according to CNBC. Unemployment did fall to 4.2% from October’s 4.6% level, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some have stated the economic momentum is slowing following the Omicron coronavirus variant.

“Just as Delta derailed the recovery in terms of the labor market, if Omicron behaved like that, I would guess it would hold back any recovery in the labor market,” Justin Weidner, an economist at Deutsche Bank, told The Wall Street Journal.