Record-Breaking Accomplishments On Jobs And Unemployment Under Biden
forbes.com
The Biden Administration’s robust and durable track record on jobs and unemployment is breaking records, putting up some of the best results we’ve seen in half a century.
Remember when Obama went his entire term just about with positive job numbers and economy? Even till the end he was trashed for the economy by republicans.
Obama walked into office the week that the Great Recession rebounded. And he spent his first 100 days focused on bailing out the banks, propping up private industry, and prosecuting our wars in the Middle East. Of course the on-paper first term looked stellar. We had nowhere to go but up.
And yet... his 60 vote majority Senate dithered on immigration, health care, and climate change because he was so overly invested in "bipartisan" legislation. He didn't close Gitmo, like he campaigned on. He didn't exit Iraq, like he campaigned on. He didn't prosecute any of the banksters. He didn't even route the trillions of dollars in treasure bailouts to homeowners, resulting in some of the highest foreclosure rates of the crisis happening on his watch, while banks recapitalized at record speed (and turned a ton of that cash into campaign ads against him in the following election cycle).
Republicans took advantage of his casual even-handed approach to governance by stabbing him as many times in the back as they could. They fought him in the courts. They fought him in the media. They held up every bill possible in the Senate. They gerrymandered every House seat and state legislative race at their disposal.
And when 2010 came around, they brutalized the Democratic Party, as a result. Obama showed up with a handshake to a knife fight, when he could have been packing heat.
As a liberal, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Obama for many of those reasons. But if you look at the criticism he was receiving from republicans, it was all 100% bullshit. It always is, though. They live and die by the straw man.
Because jobs numbers are meaningless stats to reflect the state of the economy. Doesn't matter if unemployment is at 0% if wages are stagnant and a person can't live off it
If wages are stagnant and unemployment is 0%, there are much more serious atrocities going on.
Yes, there are
Wages aren't stagnant
Closing your mind and making up “alternative facts” to avoid uncomfortable truths is a mental fallacy, and certainly doesn’t help matters.
Wages in the US have been stagnant since the 1970s, while productivity has continued to go up. That is money being stolen from workers, and you are either at the top benefiting from this theft, or more likely a traitor to the working class (perhaps unwittingly), for making such claims.
Here is an interesting article based on EPI studies which illustrates these facts, and 5 reasons why this came to be, if you’d like to learn more.
Your article is from 2015. Things have changed. Wages are increasing.
Here are more recent articles directly from the EPI, if you'd like to learn more:
These reports discuss state-level minimum wage increases, while pointing out that the federal minimum wage is still stuck at 7.25, same as it’s been since 2009.
The reports you linked do highlight a 9% wage growth between 2019-2022 for the lowest earners. I’m glad that they got that bump, but we’re very generously talking $10/hr here, and that is simply not a living wage in any part of America anymore. When factoring in change over time since the 70s, this is drops in the bucket and wages are still comparatively stagnant vs productivity in that time frame.
Also, this was during a time when companies were absolutely desperate to employ “essential workers” to keep operations going during the pandemic. I’d argue that was a much bigger motivating factor for this meager gains in the lowest wage brackets, and it had little or nothing to do with Biden’s policies.
Ok, so like I said wages are increasing, not stagnating. I never said wages shouldn't increase even more.
And wages are increasing even now, several years beyond post-pandemic reopening / return to work. So it's not just due to "essential workers". Wage increases are helping all types of workers.
Economists generally predicted that the pandemic would spark a recession. If a recession had occurred, unemployment would have skyrocketed and erased any gains made by workers.
But a recession never materialized, partly due to Biden's economic policies. So Biden's policies are in part responsible for today's wage gains.
That’s really interesting you bring this up, I was already thinking about mentioning this factor. The reason a recession never materialized is because the Biden admin literally changed the formula for calculating inflation. Since he took office, real inflation (CPI) has risen anywhere between 15 and 20%.
These cost of living increases are not sustainable for America’s working class, especially considering 40% of Americans cannot afford so much as an emergency $400 expense, as they’re literally working paycheck to paycheck.
I absolutely agree with you - we should keep going with wage increases for all workers, and they this should be incentivized by changes to federal policy. But instead of this, Biden seems to be blind to the realities many Americans are facing. So much so, that instead of addressing the recession head-on his admin simply changed the formula for how we calculate it so that we didn’t technically have one per the new formula. This isn’t helping the working class, it’s covering for irresponsible business practices of the ruling class (the corporate oligarchy), and that’s a huge problem that isn’t being addressed in any meaningful way. Do this, and we will see some real benefits to the workers, like what is happening thanks to organized labor efforts such as UAW pushing back on corporations trying to pay bottom dollar.
A recession is not affected by the formula for inflation. In fact, there have been recessions with high inflation (the 1980 recession) and recessions with low inflation (the 2007 recession). There have even been recessions with negative inflation (the Great Depression).
A recession occurs when the total income of a country decreases. This leads to a vicious cycle of less spending, which causes more unemployment, which causes further decreases in total income.
Inflation measures change in prices, not income. When incomes increase along with prices, there is no vicious cycle and no recession. And as we know, incomes are increasing.
Yes, increasing prices are bad. But increasing unemployment is far worse, especially if you want to advance the rights of workers. And unemployment is the bullet that Biden helped us dodge.
They have no idea what they’re talking about.
People still can't live off them, they are stagnant.
That's not what that word means.
Stagnant refers to something that is not moving, moving slowly, declining. Which perfectly describes wages.
Wages are neither still nor declining. They are increasing.
If they're not increasing at an equal or greater rate than inflation then they're not really increasing.
Real wages are increasing, and real wages are adjusted for inflation.
Until people can live in those wages it's irrelevant.
Wage increases are relevant to almost everyone.
In fact, if a wage increase is not relevant to you then you are quite privileged.
Privileged is settling for table scraps and calling it good.
No one is settling.
We used to be starving.
Now we get table scraps. This is progress.
Eventually, we'll get our own meals.
Then, we'll be able to take food from the fat cats who were starving us before.
Vote blue. You won't immediately realize all your wildest dreams, but you'll be moving in that direction.
78% of people now view fast food as a luxury. We are not getting table scraps. McD customer median income has gone from $45k to $75k because we have no money.
Blue has contributed to the starvation
Nobody said anything about settling.
Have you ever said to someone, "Every little bit helps"?
If not, then congratulations. You are very fortunate.
People can't live off what they're making because corporations are cranking up the prices for record profits and blaming inflation. Food is one of the biggest offenders, and then thanks to all the corporations buying up all the single family homes, it's driving rent through the roof with no chance for the average person to buy a house. It doesn't matter how much you make when the rich just raise the bar for no other reason than greed.
Wages are not stagnant, around here 5 years ago it paid 8 bucks an hour to work at a fast food restaurant, now they start at 15. I make three times as much as I did 4 years ago doing the same thing I was doing. It might be a you problem if you think wages are stagnant, or you're just a mouthpiece for fox "news"
It doesnt matter what it was 5 years ago, or what it is now. Its still not a livable wage. $15hr was the right number 20 years ago, not last week.
Source? fox "news" doesn't count though.
A positive Biden post?
better get my popcorn, the trolls are coming
Wait for it...
Well yeah, only kind allowed on politics!
It’s this guy or a felon people. Make you vote!
Back during the last turn down, everyone's houses became worth almost nothing, but no one could pay the mortgage because there were no jobs!
This time around, there are plenty of jobs, but people still can't pay the mortgage, since house prices are through the roof and the jobs aren't paying enough.
Yeah turns out when the GOP gives gigantic tax cuts to the wealthy it inflates the real estate market because they buy extra houses they don't even live in.
That, and the fact that the owners of 16 million rental units have entered into a cartel to fix pricing at high rates.
Corporate home ownership needs to end yesterday.
I agree the $2T tax cuts for the rich and corporations was bad, and so was Biden’s choice to only rollback less than half of it despite promising to undo it all on day one. Why corporations aren’t paying at least 50% of their profits in taxes is beyond me. Still, that’s only a part of this particular problem.
Refusal or inability to invest in new home building programs to increase supply, corporations like Blackstone buying up entire neighborhoods to rent seek and price gouge, and thinly veiled money laundering via foreign nationals buying American real estate in cash, are all big contributors as well.
I am glad to see this viewpoint. This is what I got yesterday at home same topic
All good and well but food, vehicle and housing prices have shot up. I'm sure someone will regale us with tales of corporate price gouging but those are the facts.
Feels like we just watched Trump peel out of the bank with a trunk full of cash, and now Biden's spent four years refilling the vault but won't close the door until we give him a second term.
Democracy is when we take a vote on whether we get robbed again. No, we can't lock the fucking bank robber up. That would be against the rules.
No one can close the door permanently because every 4 years we decide to give one guy the key. We've just never had a guy this bad before (or at least for a long time...the 1800s were wild)
Good for Biden.
Ahh yes, but i was just reading on moneywise that the recession is getting worse and we’re all going to die (I might have exaggerated that part on my own). Stock market will crash, housing will bubble. I guess it’ll be horrible for those rich million and billionaires who don’t already have 25 different ways to make money. Maybe there’s a recession in billionaire land? I mean, Elon might not get his 56billion salary and will walk away… yes, thats it, recession for billionaires.
What propaganda outlet is "moneywise"? There is no recession despite the clueless media predicting one every day for the last 4 years. Jobs keep getting blowout numbers month after month after month. Wages rose a 3% annual rate last month. Stock market is all time high despite Biden increasing minimum tax rate on corporations to reduce the national debt. Inflation adjusted wages for low wage workers increased by 12% under Biden. The inflation rate under Biden has been consistently lower than the OECD average.
Oh, I agree. That site is trash and used in total sarcasm jest.
GOD I got so fucking sick of that after the first year. It was obvious it wasn't gonna happen but every damn media outlet, even the ones I previously thought were relatively unbiased, were just shouting "recession, recession, recession" like a chant to the Econ Gods. It was such obvious propaganda.
Good still costs way too fucking much though.
Just don't ask him how many white collar jobs we lost over the last year.
This just isnt the winning metric Bidens campaign hopes it is.
Biden: literally cures cancer and institutes world peace
Tankies: "here's how this is bad for Biden"
If he literally cured cancer and instituted world peace, that would be a great thing to shout from the rooftops to drum up excitement and votes.
Shouting "The economy is great" to a bunch of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck after seeing their costs of living dramatically increase in the last five years is not a winning strategy. It reeks of someone who is out of touch.
Biden: literally cures cancer
Useful idiots: he didn't cure cancer! Fuck the data, listen to what everyday people are telling you! My mom's best friend's cousin's roommate got cancer! Biden is so out of touch!
I got downvoted for saying id support Biden if he cured cancer. You folks are deranged.
Maybe if he got 35 felonies it would help, what do you think?
Trump being shit doesnt mean no one else can also be shit.
More jobs aren't great when people need two or three each to survive. Fix wages yesterday already.
Blame Congress
Best we'll ever be willing to do is a thumbs down and a curtsy.
But he's old.
Isn't low unemployment a "despite the Biden administration" thing? Wasn't that the whole point of the interest rate hikes to "cool off" the economy (I.E. increase unemployment). Am I missing something?
The President has no power over the interest rate. The interest rate is set by the Federal Reserve.
Agreed, presidents can apply pressure but the Fed is technically independent. That probably wasn't fair of me to link Biden to the Fed, sorry. Dems are quick to attribute this gain to the Biden administration. I've heard broad statements about how Biden is good for the economy, but they don't really go into specifics. I'm curious what they're specifically saying he's done to boost the economy to the point that it invalidates Fed interest/employment/inflation models.
Executive order: anti-trust policies and various pro-consumer market adjustments
A form of stimulus to the renewable industry, by having the gov purchase new zero-carbon equipment
Stimulus during covid
Revoking a bunch of pro-oligarchy Trump orders
Incentivizing greater housing supply
Fixing the supply chain
Similar: Immediately funding cleanup and reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after its collapse, using federal funds
Just a quick sampling of stuff that is Biden's actions alone. The infrastructure spending that he helped negotiate with Senate Democrats was also huge, but I think Congress gets the lion's share of the credit for that one.
Yes you are missing the fact that the president's policies have a major effect on the economy.
What specifically is he doing that is creating jobs? As of February new jobs are being driven by healthcare jobs. There are several other types of work before you get to construction, which could plausably be linked to infrastructure spending. And again, that's held to against the interest rate hikes that are designed to lower inflation by increasing unemployment, or the more appropriate euphomism of softening the labor market.
I like how when you asked that question in another comment, and I gave you a quick list of things Biden specifically, personally did to improve the economy, you went all quiet and then came over here to ask the same question.
Yeah, I read the list and fair enough. I mean to go further I'd have to argue each thing and say if I agree that it helps the economy directly or not, who the fuck cares what I think. The Biden admin has been good on anti trust, those are filtering through the courts now right, so no concrete effect yet right? Biden is good on labor too, being like the first president to visit a picket line. That may have legitimately helped the broader economy if that factored into their decision to concede to the UAW and those wage increases filtered out to non Union shops in the south. Almost invariably when people cite "Bidenomics" they mention infrastructure and green spending, which I don't think nearly accounts for what's been happening in terms of unemployment. I wanted concrete examples, you gave me a bunch. That's something to think about, and I appreciate it.
Thanks for being open minded.
Yeah, let me know when they stop having to revise it down every single time they publish them after a month and nobody pays attention to that revision downwards and when inflation isn't 10% plus.
Okay. I am letting you know. The inflation rate is 3%. And the jobs numbers have been revised upwards more often than downwards in the last 2 years.
Not American, but please keep in mind that the national inflation rate is not necessary someone's personal inflation rate.
For example when inflation was in the 10%+ here my personal rate was almost 30%. My dad for example buys his bread in his local bakery it was €3 for a 1 loaf and didn't go up. The bread I buy was €1,02 then it went up to €1,96. That's 80%+ inflation will my dad had zero. This still is the case(luckily not as bad anymore some prices went down again) with the cheapest stuff. For me personally it doesn't matter if already to expensive tomatoes only went 5% up. What's matters is the cheapest.
For another example new cars didn't go up much, but I couldn't buy a new car anyway. (And how the fuck buys a new car every year?) It's a meaning less number.
You don't know if someone's rent went up %20 or there stable food supply. Personal inflation especially if you are already struggling is a removed.
That's being said the price hikes are do to higher prices of materieels and most important record profits for companies. You can blame (in the USA) Biden for keeping the system in places which profits on the basic needs of humans, but not necessary the current inflation numbers.
Same with jobs the numbers go's up you can credit Biden for that, you again can blame him (and his colleagues on both sides(and the not Biden side is much worse)) that you can barely scrap by on a single job.
Simple said personal experience is not numbers.
Sure, inflation is 3% before they factor in food and energy costs and then it spikes to 10 at minimum. My electricity bill can attest to that. I don't have enough data to say whether the jobs numbers have been revised up or down more commonly recently, but I have seen a lot of down revisions.
Part of inflation factor is the price of food and energy cost. No one is saying you can't be upset about the state of the economy, or the financial pressure you are feeling, but lest not go around spouting nonsense.
Don't blame Biden when most of the inflation is driven by companies padding their bottom lines
Corporations are making record profits while they jack up prices on everything, but sure, blame Biden.