It’s baffling how this Biden administration operates. They’ll boast of their supposed successes while never failing to shift blame when their results don’t meet expectations. With that said, the job numbers for February are in and they’re a complete head scratcher.
The latest job market report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the month of February has raised some eyebrows. While a total of 311,000 jobs were added, the unemployment rate actually increased to 3.6 percent, missing Wall Street’s estimates of 205,000 jobs and a 3.4 percent unemployment rate. Although this came as something of a surprise, some are buying the numbers and others not so much.Â
Town Hall reports, although 311,000 jobs were announced in February, they were still below the average of 343,000 jobs added per month over the past six months, suggesting a slowdown in the job market that has remained incredibly tight as the United States attempts to put COVID-19 behind it.
In February, BLS noted that “the number of unemployed rose to 5.9 million,” and “the number of people who were jobless for less than five weeks increased by 343,000 to 2.3 million,” reversing January’s decrease. Additionally, 4.1 million Americans employed only part-time due to economic reasons, and 5.1 million Americans who want a job are not currently working.
In February, the labor force participation rate remained essentially unchanged at 62.5 percent, but is still below the 63.3 percent pre-pandemic rate, another blow to President Biden’s promise to “Build Back Better.”
Monthly wages grew by 0.2 percent in February, resulting in an annual increase of 4.6 percent, still lagging behind inflation.
According to the Consumer Price Index, inflation jumped 0.5 percent in January and 6.4 percent over the previous 12 months, outpacing wage growth shown in the February jobs report, meaning Americans’ real wages remain negative.
Nevertheless, Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve are unlikely to back off interest rate hikes at their next meeting in March or in the months to come even if the jobs report is better than expected.
Townhall reported earlier this week that Powell delivered his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, which wasn’t good.
Here is Biden boasting about the jobs he has created.
The left is celebrating the jobs they’ve just created that people won’t step into because the unemployment rate will continue rising.While at the same time the media is telling people to ignore the fact that large companies are still laying people off because the Fed is expected to increase rates later this month. Even worse, Americans are going into more debt, dipping into their savings, and banks are starting to go belly up. Yet they tell us not to worry, that our economy is strong. Got it!
Let’s continue this conversation, in the comments below.
