Biden just lost 818,000 jobs … not including his
One of the Biden/Harris political sales points is job creation. They constantly brag about producing the greatest number of jobs of any administration in American history. They contrast their performance with President Trump’s, who they say had the greatest loss of jobs in American history. That may have some truth to it, but it definitely needs an asterisk.
What they failed to take into consideration is the Covid Pandemic that shut down the economy – producing a loss of more than 9.4 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of the jobs for which Biden takes credit were the natural rehiring as the pandemic ebbed. The speed of the return to traditional employment levels was aided by Trump’s ability to produce a Covid vaccine in record time.
Biden claims to have created 14.8 million jobs since taking office. That is 5.4 million over the 9.4 million lost to the pandemic. If you discount the jobs lost and reclaimed, the Biden record is not so impressive. In fact, it took Biden the first three years of his administration to simply bring job numbers back to pre-pandemic levels. The problem is that Biden counts all the re-hires as new jobs produced by him and his policies. That is just deceptive. They are not new, but merely old jobs being refilled.
Another way to look at jobs is through the unemployment levels. Just prior to the pandemic in 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent. At the conclusion of the Trump presidency – with the pandemic starting to wane, unemployment had risen to 11.1 percent. As of July 2024, the unemployment rate is at 4.3 percent – and has been ticking up from 3.5 percent in recent months. The recent increase in the unemployment figure indicates that 1.7 million Americans lost full time jobs. It is more informative to compare Trump’s pre-pandemic level of 3.5 percent unemployment to the current level of 4.3 percent as a measure of the influence of Biden’s policies.
Biden took bows every time the government reported a positive monthly job growth – and even when any monthly job growth was below economic expectations. If Biden is going to make job growth such an important part of his legacy, the latest news from the Labor Department is a kick in the …. uh … gut. According to Uncle Sam, there has been an unprecedented DOWNARD adjustment by more than 818,000 jobs for the period from April 2023 to March of 2024. That is a 68,000 reduction each month — taking down the monthly average from 242,000 new jobs to 174,000 new jobs per month.
To engage in Biden’s own descriptive, the 818,000 correction is a “big f***ing deal.” That is the equivalent of taking ALL the jobs created in the past four to five months and tossing them out the window.
Biden may be the most pro-union President in American history – as he and union bosses declare — but he is not the best job creator. I would tend to give that honor to President Franklin Roosevelt, who cleverly started World War II just to get America out of the Great Depression.
(I feel obligated to say that the statement above is a joke. FDR did not start World War II for that or any other reason. If I did not explain, I would be getting pushback from ignoramuses who take it literally.)
Like so many things with the proclaimed “nation’s greatest president,” the product does not live up to the advertising. Bidenomics has largely been a failure. It was not an exceptional job producer … it fueled inflation with wage growth lagging behind … put millions of Americans in the credit card trap with high interest rates.
Referring to economics, it is often said that a rising tide lifts all boats. However, an economic tsunami sinks them. Biden has been trying to convince folks that the tsunami hitting them financially is merely a rising tide.
So, there ‘tis.
Loser. Liar. Retard. Pervert……. All Biden. Now when we are rid of kumala we will MAGA!!!!!!!!
In Jesus Christ almighty name – Kamala must be gone
It’s not that anything is wrong in Joe’s piece, that facts look good, he’s entitled to his opinion, but there’s a lot of spin. I focus on unemployment since jobs, new or otherwise, are pretty much stated in that number. The arguments about whether the job is new, replacement, covid catch-up or other, like are people working two jobs, part-time or other is tedious pealing of the onion more for political gain from either Trump or Biden than a measure of the economy where unemployment is good enough.
And I have another issue, emotional. What is the point in bashing Biden’s legacy before he even leaves office? Why the energy to this most silly of measurements of Joe at this time? I mean usually we reflect back, not forward, to assess legacy. Why all the effort to bring a man down who will never run again? I think if Trump wins, Gilbertson and Horist will recommend impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden. No, this assessment of Joe is to attack Harris for his legacy. Good luck.
Let it go. Move forward. Let the man be in the casket before you deliver the eulogy. Jesus, you bitch and moan about his age, mental facilities, health, asking for him to step down. He does and then you open the Republican gang bang ala necrophilia style. I noted you should be careful what you ask for. Sage words that you just can’t hear. If you all would focus on getting people to vote for you instead of your focus on getting them not to vote for Kamala, you might actually move above your never-wavering core into some new blood for your party. Complaining about Joe ain’t gonna beat Kamala. You need to pump Trump or dump Trump, if you can. He’s as old as Biden, crazy, and getting weirder all the time. Or maybe that’s your real point. You’ve given up trying to tell your story and only can bark like dogs at the moon because it’s full.
Enough emotion. Back in focus: Unemployment peaked under the Republican Bush economy and the 2010 meltdown. Basically, Obama worked it down at a snail’s pace or worse for 8 years under the slowest recovery, but we were recovering, in probably our history/
Obama gets a 7.8% unemployment from the still cratering Bush economy resulting in the peak in October of 2009 at 10%. Hats off to Bush for taking some quick actions before his exit and his great transition to Obama.
Obama takes eight years to slowly work this to the 4.7% unemployment he hands to Trump, again, with an excellent transition and an ever lowering unemployment rate for the previous 96 months, many flatlined, but always decreasing when handed to Trump with a great transition.
Trump takes that 4.7% on the declining path and works it down to 3.5% by February of 2020 when all hell, covid style, breaks lose and he has the biggest crash in our history, second to the Great Depression.
He hands Biden a 6.4% unemployment, higher than Obama gave him, with the worst transition to the next President in our history. Like a child having a tantrum. The man basically cut and ran with his moving van of documents.
So, Obama went from 7.8% to 4.7%; Trump from 4.7% to 3.5% if you let him off the covid hook, and Biden from 6.4% to our current 4.3% with four months to go where I expect unemployment to drop a bit more given we miss the recession which I expect we will.
Those are the facts. We can talk jobs, new jobs, old jobs, whatever, but the numbers will follow the total available work force against unemployment, or the reciprocal employment factor.
Obama dropped unemployment by 40% in 8 years which I say is very slow. Trump by 25% in 4 years which I say is meh. And Biden drops it 33% to date, almost four years, with a few months yet to go. Obama and Trump got great transitions from the previous President’s administration. Biden dealt in the dark from the Trump administration more interested in loading documents, derailing Congress at the Capitol, and running for the hills. Seems like Trump is queen of the pigs and a pig for a decent transition which is just childish. Fuckin finish the job for the people you said you serve versus getting out of Dodge tail tween you legs and scowling all the way home.
And on the pandemic. Totally on Trump’s watch and fixed by Bidenomics. Trump is charged with defense of the nation and he failed in a deadly fashion with covid. The metric is how did the US fare against the rest of world with our response results. Trump has the worst record for covid response of any developed nation both economically and in murder. I say murder because a giant proportion of the deaths in the US just did not happen in other developed nations and did not need to happen here if Trump’s response was equal to other leader’s.
When looking at per capita death by country, with lower being better, the US ranks 222 out of 238 countries. Per capita in this case is deaths per million. 221 countries had better covid responses to avoid death than Trump’s. The Jamaican bobsled team laughs at us. I expect that the US economy was more resilient than most but cannot find that data yet. Given the complexity, I am not sure it exists. Chances are economically, the US under Trump did better than most which ratcheted up even more under Biden who has economically outpaced Trump on most economic measurements. Yes, inflation is bad, but its not the only economic measurement,
The bottom line is that Trump failed to protect us or respond adequately to the covid challenge. His unemployment numbers are good, but in terms of percentage improvement, Biden’s and Obama’s are better. When it comes to total jobs, Biden wins but some of that is a factor of time and more people able to work. It terms of total unemployment —- all three are close enough that measuring the difference is in angels on the head of a pin math. At 4% or less unemployment, it’s a stupid topic to wage political war on. Good luck.
Frank Stetson … Thanks for the first graph compliment on the article. A first. Unfortunately a technical error put it out originally with the wrong byline. I bet you would have had a different assessment if you saw my name on it….lol. I says a lot about personal animus. I am surprised you did not recognize the signature ending.
Not a first by far. And admitting you used facts, the facts seem correct, and opinion is OK —– if that’s a compliment to you, think about it. Think hard. Try acknowledgement or if feeling frisky: amazement.
Nope, my assessment would have remained the same.
Personal animus is in your mind, as in it saying a lot.
Always recognized, happens a lot, Joe should invest more. Still blocking free speech for unknown triggers more and more. Hard for SW to erode……
Joe, or someone pretending to be Joe, uses your signature all the time.
Glad your first take was to not disagree with my premise. Good luck.
Frank Stetson …. LMAO You are really trying to get away with this bs??? First of all, you have never said such positive things about anything I wrote. I also base my opinions on facts despite your constant criticism. I find its impossible to believe that your assessment would have been the same if you knew I wrote the article. The facts say otherwise — referring to your long long unbroken string of nasty and mendacious rebuttals. You even suggest you recognized me as the author. Now that is a blatant lie. You even referred to the commentary as “joe’s piece.” And you say the name deal “happens a lot.” To use your lament … where is the proof. Joe nor any other PBP writers have ever used my sign off. Wrong again. Occasionally a responder does it to be sarcastic. I would say that the best response to this bit of Stetson bs is to use your tiresome proclamation ….BUSTED!
Horist. I cannot help what goes on inside that mind of yours, but you can rest assured I have complemented you before a number of times. Sometimes unlike this, for an entire article.
Of course, I reference this as Joe’s piece, he was listed as the author.
I am sorry that I am all upside your brain like an earworm. You just cannot get rid of. Trust me when I say I respond in the same fashion to everyone here. Ernest Dempsey probably gets the worst of it because he is the worst of it.
You may feel you are in focus more but perhaps that’s just an artifact of you riding more.
My issue, and the issue that many here have with you, is that indeed you voice opinion based on fact. However, you often will not disclose, said fact, will not source said fact, And have no evidence offered when asked. Worst yet, you often respond to such a request with a personal attack. This passage is yet another example of that.
Larry Horist: obviously I have complimented you in the past, agreed a number of times, sometimes to an entire article. How could you know, you said you don’t read them? And admitting you used facts, the facts seem correct, and opinion is OK —– if that’s a compliment to you, think about it. Think hard. Try acknowledgement or if feeling frisky: amazement.
Of course it would have been the same independent of your own victimhood. Earnest Dempsey fares far worse, because he is far worse. You may think you get it worse, but frankly, you publish the most, so there it tis.
And what do you get? Mostly facts in rebuttal, which you determine are BS, nasty, and mendacious. Always with the mendacious. If you need a 50-cent word, you should use it sparingly, not repeatedly….. Takes the mustard out of it :>)
You ask for proof? How can one prove Joe’s name got changed with yours? It’s the internet, you don’t highlight edit marks. There tis it, the beauty and horror of the invisibly changing internet.
Worse yet, when confronted, and I use that term because of your hostility, when confronted with a request for facts, sources, or links, you often respond with a personal attack demeaning the person just for the asking. I am not the lone recipient of that behavior.
This article is a perfect example. Look at all the personal attacks and not one bit on the information I provided. No pushback, no retort, no response except to pick on me because your feathers are ruffled over a bland statement that you inflated into a tacit compliment. Again, seems like you agree with the gist of my response, thanks for the compliment :>)
Joe is using, or was using, your sign-off on right in this series of tomes. Occurs frequently. You can even find responses to Joe in what’s now your articles. But Larry, the internet is magical and it erases all edits like this so there is no proof. But you knew that before you asked, probably, unless you are really old.
Finally: I use BUSTED very specifically when the factual truth is not told. I am sorry you find it tiresome, but consider its a conservative site where much horseshit is spread without supporting evidence. Backed by EVIDENCE. I do not think you met the terms.
Yes Larry, I can attest that Frank has complimented you in the past. Usually it is when you write a on a more neutral subject. Please do not blame your memory failure on Frank.
Larry, I think Tom can attest that i have complimented you in the past. Others can and should too.
Biden lost 290K plus children who crossed the open border.
No, their parents lost them! They were unaccompanied. Lets put the blame where it belongs. When I was a parent, I never left my child unattended.
So, Biden quoted the labor Department statistics, which said he created 14.8M jobs. It got corrected, to about 14M, which is something they do often after reviewing past data from different sources. By the way, it was high because of industry data, not anything the government did. Things like putting out multiple job requests for the same position, and reporting them all filled when someone was hired. Only by counting household data can the government fix the numbers, and to their credit, they do revise when they have better data.
“Biden counts all the re-hires” – Well, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts them, but off course he does. Those jobs were eliminated during Felon Trump’s administration, and the jobs returned during Biden’s administration. That’s why we look at the numbers – to see what President’s policies are working and what aren’t.
Over Felon Trump’s term, the economy lost 3.3M jobs. The last time employment fell during a presidential term was in 1933, when Herbert Hoover left office during the early period of the Great Depression.
Among the presidents from Jimmy Carter to Felon Trump, Bill Clinton created the most jobs at 18.6 million, while Ronald Reagan had the largest cumulative percentage increase in jobs at 15.6%. But the both did it in 8 years, not 4.
You attack Biden for not gaining as many jobs as initially reported, but he’s still the best job creator in history for one term. But not a peep about Felon Trump’s extremely bad record. No sensational titles for Felon Trump’s screw-ups.
Biden can take all the fucking bows he wants for improving the economy. Felon Trump got his reward – impeached twice, kicked out of office, and multiple felony charges for his behavior.
This says it all:
The U.S. added 15.8 million jobs during Biden’s first 42 months in office, compared to a 2.7 million contraction during Trump’s presidency, according to total nonfarm payrolls, the most-cited measure of total employment which encompasses most American workers. Read more at here: *https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/08/16/did-biden-or-trump-create-more-jobs-here-are-the-facts/*
Right now we have 1.62 jobs for every 1.0 worker! Trump never did this. End of story.
I join Frank’s and JSB’s comments. Another job of spin on a target that will not be running. A waste of energy!!!
Tom … Hey old man, you for get to consider the pandemic in your simpleminded analysis. And you refer to Chinese sources? LOL
The pandemic was taken into account. Republicans need to stop using that as a crutch to prop up their lies. Oh and by the way, the pandemic would not have been as bad if Trump had not denied it for the first three months!!! And then spent another month telling folks to drink bleach and stick an ultraviolet lamp down their throat.
The source was Forbes, a respected business journal.
Horist: usually I segment out the pandemic which is a blessing you don’t reciprocate with for Biden. However, covid was on Trump’s watch, his lack of response killed a quarter million citizens all on his watch. We rank about 222 out of 238 countries in response.
The COVID vaccine was released in August 2021. By the end of December, less than 3 million shots had been administered (and we’re talking a 2-shot vaccine). That’s months to just barely roll out the vaccine. 4 months into Biden’s term, 131M people, 40% of the population, were vaccinated. And by November 2021, it was 70%.
The other 30% mostly chose not to get vaccinated. Why 30%? Well, that’s about the number of Trump supporters and hard-core Republicans who refused to get the vaccination because of “free-dumb”.
Yes, of course Trump deserves the blame for the pandemic, because he totally fucked up the US response. He did nothing except lie to people when it first showed up in the US. He refused to be seen with a mask, and made it a political statement. He touted alternatives, like horse dewormer, drinking bleach (!!!), and putting sunlight up your ass. He attacked Dr. Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the top epidemiologist in the country. He tried to blame COVID on the Chinese. He could have encouraging people to get the vaccine, he could have had the infrastructure in place for when the vaccines would be ready, he could have warned people that COVID is deadly and people should take precautions. He could have spent money on digital infrastructure to help people work or go to school from home. He could have gotten more trucks on the road and more people to unload ships sitting in the harbor – instead there were empty shelves in groceries around the country.
Biden did all the things that Trump should have done, and deserves the credit for the job gains. Trump deserved to get kicked out of office by voters.
There is no doubt about it. This blog was written by someone who voted for Trump twice and will do it again even if Trump is in jail. Trump is a convicted felon. He can’t vote but he can run for President of these United States. There is no doubt the rest of the world is laughing at us. Why wasn’t he cuffed and locked up after his trial? He was found guilty of 34 felonies.
I agree. Larry is a Trumpeter! Larry is covert MAGA and often spins the facts and/or lies by omission. He will have his coming out party if Trump wins. LOL
Worse, Horist is a staunch conservative embracing a felon to be his King. He favors a serial sexual abuser, liable for digital rape, as his top dog, the best the country has.
He says he likes policy, not personality.
Character is the foundation of personality.
A sexual abusing felon married to a communist with a communist party-member living in his cabana, top secret documents all over the place, found guilty of trying to rig the 2016 election, his lawyers pleading guilty to trying to rig the 2020 election, testifying against him, yeah —— Larry is a long ways from Reagan at this point.
I agree Frank. This election is all about 1) Character; 2) Keeping our freedoms; 3) Worldwide respect for the office of the POTUS; 4) Restoring faith in our institutions; 5) Restoring the middle class. Its all about which direction we want to go!
Tim Walz said it best during his speech at the DNC when he said, “No coach writes a playbook if he does not intend on using it.”
Look up on Youtube, Anthony Davis podcast with Bandy Lee, M.D. M. Div. Ms. Lee is a top psychiatrist who with others discusses Trump. You can find it at *https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGNXhNKeaOmVzplYxZ0IFB2nRn_r41GAC* She is spot on!!!
Walz’s point was that Trump will use Project 2025. And when you listen to Dr. Bandy Lee, Behavior Psychiatrist, she talks all about Trump’s decision making process and where his vulnerabilities are that will cause him to look to his Project 2025 playbook. Basically she is saying that Trump gets good input and not so good input, and this leads him to a confused state of mind. Because Trump is a narcissist, his mind is only anchored to what makes him look good, not to any moral or ethical anchor, not anchored to what is good for for the country or others. And it is when he is in a confused unanchored state of mind that he is vulnerable – looking for a way out of the confusion. Enter Project 2025!!! She also claims he will use it. Let’s face it, he seeks praise for himself, and Project 2025 is one way of getting it from his base, even if the rest of the country hates him for it.
I think we all need to heed Walz’s and Dr. Lee’s warnings!!!
Larry, you run hot then cold on the matter of appropriate context. Appropriate meaning the whole story not a quarter or two. Job creation is subject to a host of inputs made over many quarters. Your professional career is centered on economics. Personality rears its less than handsome head when politics gets economics twisted into a salty pretzel.
What’s with the Larry bromance?