If you watched President Joe Biden’s remarks on the January jobs report, you could be forgiven for believing that a great feat that “never happened before” had just actually happened. You could be forgiven for believing all his platitudes about working families getting more of what they need, despite inflation not seen since the early 1990s. The problem for Biden and his plummeting approval rating is that his remarks are, at best, a rose-tinted view of reality.

A closer look at the jobs report reveals some concerning data. As the economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 lockdowns, we would expect that smart government policy would foster growth in private sector jobs. Unfortunately, this jobs report shows a reduction in private employment of some 300,000 jobs. Despite this administration’s claims to be laser-focused on “buy American” and repatriating the supply chain, this is a serious blow to the recovery.