President Joe Biden did not allow the mainstream media to define his narrative for an unemployment report that was less than expected. He framed it right.
Joe Biden commanded the narrative
The September unemployment report is out. And the mainstream media cannot accept that it was not a blockbuster number – which was still, progress.
Job growth slowed to the year’s weakest pace last month as the latest coronavirus wave dashed hopes of an imminent return to normal for the U.S. economy.
Employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department said Friday, down from 366,000 in August — and far below the increase of more than one million in July, before the highly contagious Delta variant led to a spike in coronavirus cases across much of the country. Leisure and hospitality businesses, a main driver of job growth earlier this year, added fewer than 100,000 jobs for the second straight month.
“Employment is slowing when it should be picking up because we’re still on the course set by the virus,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for the accounting firm Grant Thornton.
Joe Biden did not allow the abundance of negativity to take his eye off of the ball. He pointed out the unemployment rate is on a continued decline. Moreover, it is on the decline for every demographic. Additionally, wages are up.
“Overall, the unemployment report shows almost 200 000 jobs were created last month,” Biden said. “Over three hundred thousand in the private sector and twenty-six thousand in manufacturing, offset by some seasonal adjustments in education hiring. The monthly totals bounce around, but if you take a look at the trend, it’s solid. On average, 600,000 new jobs created every month since I took office. And in three months before I got here, that was one-tenth what was being created. It’s 60 000 as opposed to 600 000 jobs a month. In total, the job creation in the first eight months of my administration is nearly five million jobs; jobs up, wages up, unemployment down. That’s progress, and it’s a tribute to the hard work and resilience of the American people who are battling through this pandemic working to keep their businesses afloat.”
That is the message one must convey going forward.