Joe Biden said President Trump could be the first to leave office with a negative record on job creation in Tuesday’s presidential debate.
“He could be the first president of the United States to leave office having fewer in his administration than when he became president,” the former vice president said.
Biden’s comment would be correct if the current economic recovery reverses course.
Labor Department data shows there were 145.6 million workers when Trump took office in January 2017. That number grew to nearly 152.4 million earlier this year, before the pandemic hit. In March and April, as the economy shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, roughly 20 million jobs were lost.
The economy has regained roughly half of those jobs lost. Roughly 10 million have returned since the spring, leaving total nonfarm payroll jobs at 140.9 million, as of August.
Over the course of these months, the unemployment rate has gone from 14.7% in April to 8.4% in August. The unemployment rate fell even as the labor force expanded by nearly 1 million, suggesting that many workers are returning to their old jobs.
Still, hiring has slowed in each of the past few months, raising the prospect that the recovery will lose steam before the workers who lost their jobs in the pandemic are able to return to work.
