U.S. job growth has now reached the point that all the private-sector job losses recorded in connection to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have been wiped away, per the Associated Press. As overall unemployment remains low, substantial numbers of Americans are able to work.
The lost jobs returned at a quicker rate than the recovery after the economic downturn around 2008. “The economy has now recovered all the private-sector jobs lost to the pandemic, a little over two years after the recession. It took almost five years to reach that level after the 2008-2009 downturn,” the Associated Press explains. There’s now a federal jobs report for June available, and according to the newly available numbers, U.S. employers added 372,000 jobs last month, which the Associated Press refers to as “a surprisingly strong gain.”
For the fourth month in a row, unemployment was at 3.6 percent. The economic catastrophe predicted by some on the Right to befall the United States if Biden became president is nowhere in sight. Obviously, Biden is taking the problems of high inflation — and high gas prices — seriously, but inflation has recently been high worldwide, and presidential administrations don’t somehow control gas prices. Presidential administrations also — generally speaking — don’t control overseas crises such as the war in Ukraine, which has driven up gas and food prices, the Associated Press notes. Trump has claimed if he were president the war in Ukraine wouldn’t even be happening, which is ridiculous. He never revealed some kind of secret aptitude for foreign policy matters.
Employment numbers should make clear that what the Biden administration is doing isn’t somehow inflicting devastating economic harm on the U.S. Weird, right-wing illusions that the country is spiraling out of control with Biden in charge are just that: illusions. There are plenty of extremely serious problems with which to deal that don’t require right-wing thinking that there’s a boogeyman behind just about every corner.
Job growth was strong across various sectors of the economy in June. In healthcare, 78,000 jobs were added, transportation and warehousing saw the addition of 36,000, and professional services, a category ranging from accounting to legal services, added 74,000. The Associated Press seemed to indicate the Federal Reserve may use June job numbers as reason to further question U.S. employment while fighting inflation; the idea covered in the outlet is companies raising wages to attract new employees and then hiking their prices to cover their additional costs. Fundamentally, there are a variety of factors that drive inflation; it wouldn’t somehow be just the fault of that scenario playing out at U.S. employers. Supply chain issues and high consumer/ business-to-business demand would also drive it as prices rise. The Federal Reserve has already implemented interest rate increases.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press notes what’s going on with hiring is “a trend that should dispel concerns that the U.S. economy might be on the verge of a recession.” There remain some two job postings per each unemployed worker, meaning there’s still a lot out there. The interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve were connected by the Associated Press to a reported decline in home sales.
