President Joe Biden celebrated Friday’s jobs report as further evidence his economic policies are working, even as historic inflation has far outpaced wage growth over the past year.
The United States added 431,000 jobs in March, and government adjustments showed that 100,000 more jobs than previously thought were added in February and January combined. Furthermore, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, a new pandemic low.
“Our recovery has now created 7.9 million jobs, more jobs created over the first 14 months of any presidency in any term ever, and that’s striking,” the president said. “Our economy has gone from being on the mend to being on the move.”
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However, Biden said he recognizes the administration must do more to cut costs across nearly all commercial goods.
Toward that end, the president touted his action from Thursday to cut rising gas prices by releasing an unprecedented 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“We’re going to continue to create jobs, bring down the cost for families, and rein [in] the spending of my predecessor, all important steps in our promise to continue our historic progress to build a better America,” he said in closing. “I said from the outset, we’re the only country in the world that comes out of crises stronger than we went into. That’s what we’re doing here.”
Despite a number of recent, positive labor signals, voters overwhelmingly seem to doubt Biden’s stewardship of the economy. A poll released Sunday by NBC News found Biden’s approval ratings, which had bounced back following his initial response to the war in Ukraine, had settled back to just 40%. Furthermore, only 33% of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of the economy.
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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.
