Freedom

By Washington Examiner

President Joe Biden hopes the latest jobs report will help convince voters that the economy is thriving under his policies, but a thorough look at the data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the economy is far weaker than he says it is.

The headline numbers of 300,000 jobs created and an unemployment rate under 4% look solid. But the growth is in part-time jobs. There are more full-time jobs but only in nonproductive sectors, such as government and government-subsidized healthcare.

Bidenomics seems only to be working for part-time, mostly foreign workers. The rest of the population is out of luck as prices rise and borrowing costs make American dream essentials, such as a house and a car, less affordable than ever.

Twelve months ago, 134,287,000 Americans had full-time jobs. Today, that number has fallen to 132,940,000. For all Biden’s talk, there are a million fewer people with full-time jobs now than there were a year ago. By contrast, some 26,744,000 people had part-time jobs a year ago, but that number has risen to 28,632,000 now. The number of people reporting they work more than one job has also risen by almost half a million in the past year. 

More people working two or more jobs to make ends meet is not the success story Biden is trying to sell.

The sectors where jobs are being created should also alarm anyone interested in the long-term strength of the economy. Ideally, we’d be creating jobs in productive sectors, such as manufacturing and software. But that is not happening. The fastest-growing sector under Biden has been healthcare, which is largely financed by government spending through Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance subsidies, while the second-fastest-growing sector has been government jobs. No country ever grew strong on government and healthcare jobs. Manufacturing employment is flat, and the information sector actually lost jobs.

Bidenomics has also disproportionately benefited foreign workers. The number of those born in the United States with jobs fell in the past year, while the number of those born in foreign countries gained over a million.

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Wages are finally rising faster than inflation, which is a good thing, but the standard inflation measure does not include the cost of borrowing, which has soared thanks to Biden’s inflationary spending. When he took office, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage could be financed at a 2.77% interest rate. Today, it is 6.82%. Higher borrowing costs mean the typical mortgage payment is double what it was when Biden took office. The average cost of owning and operating a car has risen by 27%, again largely due to borrowing costs. No wonder more people feel like they are falling behind under Biden.

The president can spike the football on the economy, but the data show his policies are not working, especially for those people born here.