President Joe Biden is a multi-tasking wonder, especially when it comes to the economy. He has been juggling more balls than we can count. There is the pandemic, the end of a 20-year war, and climate change’s fires, hurricanes, and flooding. There is more, SCOTUS destroys abortions, voting rights bills in question, Biden’s infrastructure plans, and then there is the economy. He is doing a real bang-up job on that front, too. His numbers ran the previous administration’s claims right into the ground. Just look at this latest economic news from President Biden.
The U.S. economy has been on a strong path of recovery. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden’s jobless claims numbers totaled 340,000 in the week ending on August 28. The Labor Department used a four-week average to reduce the week-to-week volatility. That was the best reckoning of our nation’s economy since the pandemic first began. So how did our president manage that?
For one, American businesses limited layoffs in spite of the far more highly contagious new coronavirus Delta variant. Companies have recognized that holding onto their employees was a more profitable course of action.
Initial jobless claims fell by 14,000. That, too, was their lowest number since March 14, 2020. That came in advance of the Labor Department’s release of its monthly jobs report and will indicate the number of jobs employers added in August, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Ongoing claims, which reflected continuing benefits, ran right at 2.75 million. That showed a decrease of 160,000 compared to the “previous week’s revised level:
‘The decrease in the number of continuing claims also represents the lowest level for insured unemployment since the Covid era began. ‘
The level of continuing claims, which was the measure of ongoing benefits, was 2.75 million. That was a decrease of 160,000 from the previous week’s revised level.
Of course now that so many employees have been working at home due to the pandemic, employers have recognized the savings in utilities, space, and lost working hours. Employees saw a saving in both transportation costs and commuting time, according to CNBC News:
‘Economists looking for even more robust job creation have noted that federal unemployment benefits, a safety net for those who lost jobs during the worst of the pandemic, are set to expire Monday. Others noted that with public schools starting to open across the U.S., parents may be able to finally return to the office.’
Chief Investment Officer at Bleakley Advisory Group Peter Boockvar wrote:
‘Bottom line, we now have the lowest initial filings for claims and smallest level of continuing claims since everything changed in March last year. Just listen to any company that is looking to expand and you’ll hear stories about the difficulty in finding positions so it makes sense that claims continue to decline.’
‘We’ll of course now hear about what will happen in coming weeks as classrooms refill, hopefully without incident, parents go back to work and added benefits expire.’
Economists anticipate the employers added 720,000 employees to companies’Â payrolls last month. It could mean an even lower unemployment rate, moving down from 5.4 percent to 5.2 percent.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
