Jobs report shows surge
Biden says much hard work left to be done
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden took a restrained victory lap Friday after receiving the best jobs report in nearly a year, and he urged Americans to get vaccinated to prevent a resurgent coronavirus from jeopardizing the country’s economic recovery.
“My message today is not one of celebration,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s one to remind us we have a lot of hardwork left to be done.”
The report from the Labor Department showed a hiring surge in July, with American employers adding 943,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropping to 5.4%. The news was
a relief to policymakers and economists who’d feared the data might reflect the damaging effects of the delta variant and continued supply bottlenecks and labor shortages. It was still welcome news insidethe White House.
“What is indisputable now is this: The Biden plan is working, the Biden plan is producing results and the Biden plan is moving this country forward,” Mr. Biden saidduring remarks from the WhiteHouse’s East Room.
Mr. Biden’s somewhat tempered reaction underlinedthe broader uncertainty about the pandemic amid a fourth wave of cases. It also highlighted an awareness that, ironically enough, rapid job growth could jeopardize his push in Congress to make sweeping investments in additional subsidies and tax breaksfor working families.
Republicans, who oppose that plan, have already started attacking the administration over rising inflation amid a surge in demand for things like used cars and hotel rooms. They argue that spending trillions on new benefits for the middle class — including subsidized preschool and community college — is unnecessary and likely to overheat the economy.
“Biden and the Democrats are out of touch with the reality facing all Americans: Their money is worth less and less,” Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, saidin a statement.
Democrats counter that more work remains to recoverfrom the shutdown that began in spring of last year and led to the deepest economic contraction since the GreatDepression. The Democrats’ proposed $3.5 trillion in subsidies for families and workers, Mr. Biden argues, will stabilize the economy overthe long term.
With the 943,000 payrolls added last month — and almost the same number in June — the economy has regained about three-quarters of the 22 million jobs lost in Marchand April of last year.
The new jobs report suggests an easing of the labor crunch as employers stepped up pay, on top of other incentives like sign-on bonuses, to attract workers who have been slow to return to the job market. For all private-sector employees, average hourly wages rose 4% in July from a year earlier, and the rate of increase was running at double that pace for restaurant workers.
“The American labor market continues to make impressive progress, particularly since May,” said Leslie Preston, senior economist at TD Economics, part of the TD Bank Group. “If the pace of hiring over the last three months continues,” she added, “all jobs lost due to the pandemic would be regained inseven months.”
That’s a big if, given the deltavariant and the risk that consumers may pull back in the face of renewed public health warnings and mask mandates. Another month or two of solid job gains, however, will likely prompt the Federal Reserve to start withdrawingsome of its economic stimulusearlier than initially thoughtby economists.
The Fed is closely watching data on the labor market, aswell as inflation, which has picked up significantly in recent months thanks to pentup demand and widespread supply and delivery constraints. Leisure and hospitality businesses led all sectorsin hiring last month, adding380,000 to their payrolls.