The January Jobs Report Shows Bidenomics is Alive and Well

Photo from ABC News

With days before President Bidens State of the Union address to Congress, the American Jobs Market is giving him something to boast about, humming along right now with the 517,000 new positions created in the first month of 2023.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest rate since May 1969 (two months before Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.)

January is generally the month when job numbers, because of the end of the holiday season, contract because seasonal employees are let go.

However, if these numbers hold up to revised calculations, January's job numbers will be almost double December 2022's 260,000 new positions created.

That, combined with reduced inflation levels over the last six months and a stronger GDP rate of 2.9 percent in the last quarter of 2022 have given support to Bidenomics: the idea that you invest in growing the economy from the bottom up and expanding the middle class.

Commenting on the new jobs numbers and how his policies (the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act,) President Biden offered:

"...today, I’m happy to report that the state of the Union and the state of our economy is strong. We learned this morning that the economy has created 517,000 jobs just last month, more than half a million jobs in just the month of January. And in addition, we also learned that we, there were half a million more jobs created last year than we thought, so the January report is updated. I mean, excuse me, the December report is updated. Add that all up, it means we created 12 million — 12 million jobs since I took office. That means we have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term, than any time, in two years. That’s the strongest two years of job growth in history by a longshot....We also learned that the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent — 3.4 percent. That’s the lowest in 54 years. In fact, the last time unemployment rate was that low was May of 1969. Think about that. And what’s more: Black and Hispanic unemployment are near record lows. This matters. More working-age folks coming into the labor market looking for jobs last month than have in a while. That is — remember all the talk about “no one’s looking for…” — “we need more people coming into the market.” Well, more people are coming into the market looking for jobs and getting jobs, a positive sign for the health of the economy going forward. And even as the job market reaches historic highs, inflation continues to come down. Inflation has now fallen for six straight months. Gas prices are down more than $1.50 a gallon since their peak. Food inflation is falling as well. And as inflation is coming down, take-home pay for workers is going up. Real wages are up. Wages for lower-income and middle-income workers have gone up even more. A couple — couple that with a 2.9 percent economic growth last quarter and here’s where we stand: the strongest job growth in history; the lowest unemployment rate in 54 years; manufacturing rebounding at a faster rate than in the last 40 years; inflation coming down; real rac- — real wages going up — but moderately going up, not going through the roof; the economy growing at a solid clip. Put simply, I would argue the Biden economic plan is working."

"For the past two years, we’ve heard a chorus of critics write off my economic plan. They said it’s just not possible to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. And they said we can’t bring back American manufacturing. They said we can’t make things in America anymore, that somehow adding jobs was a bad thing. Well — or that the only way to slow down inflation was to destroy jobs. Well, today’s data makes crystal clear what I’ve always known in my gut: These critics and cynics are wrong. While we may face setbacks along the way, and there will be some, there is more work to do. It’s clear our plan is working because of the grit and resolve of the American worker. We’re going to keep lowering costs for families — from lowering costs in healthcare, prescription drugs, clean energy — because we passed that legislation. We’re going to be rolling it out this whole year. We’re going to keep seeing shovels hitting the ground all around the country to rebuild the infrastructure and supply chains, manufacturing more here at home. And in — in communities across this country that were too easily written off for dead, we’re going to not only see jobs coming back, but a sense of self-worth and pride coming back. Nothing worse than when a city has a major manufacturer leave, shut down, and all of a sudden your kid getting out of high school or college says, “Mom, I got to move; nothing here for me anymore. Nothing here.” Well, I’m intent on changing that in the Heartland as well. That’s how we build an America where we all can take pride in working — and working families have a good jobs and a little more breathing room. And the — as the economy grows from the bottom up and middle out — this is my objective for the long haul. Trickle-down economics works for one group of Americans. It doesn’t work for everybody. And so this is what’s it’s all about.'

It will be interesting to see how the Trumpist Republicans led by Kevin I needed 15 ballots McCarthy at the State of the Union address this Tuesday react to President Biden repeating these very numbers.

It should tell the American People a lot if they do not applaud the positive economic news. People should wonder: what is it about high job numbers, lower inflation, and better-than-expected economic growth that you do not like.