President Joe Biden took a shot at declining job numbers in the economy under former President Donald Trump Friday without mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the economy.
The president touted the August jobs report in an address Friday, which showed the U.S. added 187,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, and the unemployment rate rising to 3.8% over the last 31 days. Biden noted at the beginning of the speech Trump was one of two presidents who ended their presidency with fewer jobs than when he entered without adding the administration was handling a pandemic. (RELATED: As More Countries Link Arms With China, Is US Dollar Dominance Truly At Risk?)
“It wasn’t that long ago that America was losing jobs,” Biden said. “In fact, my predecessor was one of only two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered. Look, look at where we are right now. Just this morning we learned that the economy created 190,000 jobs last month. All total, we have added 13.5 million jobs since I took office.”
Economists predicted ahead of August the country would add 170,000 jobs after 187,000 jobs had been added in July, Reuters reported. The healthcare sector added the most jobs, 71,000, while the hospitality sector tacked on an additional 40,000 jobs for the month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
The transportation and warehousing sector lost 34,000 jobs, the BLS reported.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020 forcing businesses to shut down and schools to move to remote learning. The Department of Labor announced in May 2020 that 2.4 million new jobless claims were filed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of claims filed during the pandemic to nearly 39 million during that time.
Unemployment claims increased to 742,000 in November 2020.