If there’s anything that can be said about Joe Biden’s economic performance, it’s that consistency has been a strength of his. Unfortunately, he’s been consistently terrible.
September’s job report had payrolls rise 194,000 – compared to expectations of 500,000. Of those 194,000 jobs, 84,500, or nearly half, were added in Florida, a state Biden has singled out for criticism for their COVID response.
The labor shortage got worse, with the available workforce declining by 183,000 nationwide. However, that actually helped the statistics, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.8% because those who leave the labor force are no longer considered “unemployed.” The U-6 unemployment rate, which accounts for discouraged workers in addition to the unemployed, was 8.5% in September. Also of note, employment among women specifically actually fell by 26,000 jobs.
Back in April Biden presided over the largest jobs report miss since 1998, with the economy only adding 266,000 jobs – 800,000 short of expectations. The figures were so bad CNBC’s anchors had to do a double take when reporting on the numbers, briefly thinking they may have been reported in error.
Now the third quarter GDP stats are in, and like all other economic indicators under Biden, they continue to disappoint (shocking only CNN).
According to the Washington Examiner:
Gross domestic product grew at a 2% annual rate in the third quarter of 2021, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced on Thursday morning.
The growth was slower than forecasters expected and was well below the 6.7% pace of growth that the economy experienced in the second quarter of this year. GDP grew at a 6.3% annual rate during the first quarter.
Forecasters expect growth to pick up in the quarters ahead, but the result is a disappointment given the hopes for a continued strong rebound from the pandemic.
Goldman Sachs this month revised down its GDP projection for 2021 from 5.7% to 5.6% after previously cutting it down from 6.2% in September.
The economy has also been experiencing record inflation. In September prices had risen 5.4% on an annualized basis (from September 2020), the highest since 2008.
Meanwhile, the economy has been facing supply chain issues, which the White House amazingly partially blamed on American consumers themselves yesterday. “So many people across the country are purchasing more goods online. Maybe some of it is from habits that developed during the pandemic when people weren’t leaving their homes” Jen Psaki told a reporter who asked “What’s your message to Americans who are still so worried about getting their Christmas gifts on time, Halloween, is this going to be happening at a fast enough pace?”
Psaki had previously tried to blame soaring inflation on rising demand from an economic recovery. Of course, if the economy is recovering at such a fast rate that it’s overheating like this, one is left to wonder how that’s occurring in absence of a single good jobs report under Biden.
Matt Palumbo is the author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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