U.S. President Joe Biden speaks concerning the August U.S. jobs and employment report numbers within the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden lauded recent jobs data out Friday that showed robust growth up to now month.
“As we head into Labor Day, we should take a step back and be aware of the indisputable fact that America’s now in one among the strongest job-creating periods in our history,” Biden said within the White House Rose Garden. “It wasn’t that way back that America was losing jobs.”
Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 187,000 in August, beating estimates of 170,000.
The unemployment rate rose to three.8%, up from 3.5% in July, and the very best it has been since February 2022.
Nonetheless, Biden noted last month’s jobless rate was far below 6.3% unemployment, the speed when he took office in January 2021.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% in August, below expectations, but still up 4.3% in comparison with a 12 months ago.
Officials on the Federal Reserve are keeping a detailed eye on jobs numbers as they resolve whether to implement one other rate of interest hike this fall. The Fed would really like to see the market cool off and the labor market slow right down to help decrease inflation back to the normal 2% goal.
Inflation has already fallen to a few third of what it was a 12 months ago. Biden said Friday that the drop is attributable to his administration’s economic policy.
“Some experts said to get inflation under control, we would have liked higher unemployment and lower wages, but I’ve never thought that was the issue,” Biden said. “It’s no accident. I got here to office determined to construct the economy another way, from the center out and the underside up.”
