The Obama administration sought to claim credit for the improvement in the U.S. economy Tuesday, as economic adviser Jason Furman drew attention to a number of key metrics that have risen over the year.
“I’m not saying it’s morning in America. I think we’re digging our way out of a really deep hole, and we’re still not all the way out of that hole,” Furman said at a White House press briefing. “But absolutely, moving in the right direction,” he added.
Furman, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote a blog post on the White House site and spoke at the briefing to tout the recovery. “The U.S. economic recovery took a major step forward in 2014, achieving a number of important milestones,” Furman wrote in the post.
He noted that there have been 57 straight months of private-sector job growth, a record. Furthermore, the economy has added more jobs in 2014 than any year since 1999, with a month left to go.
“This isn’t an accident,” Furman said of the nation’s economic performance outstripping that of other advanced nations over the past year. He attributed the gains to a number of President Obama’s policies, including the 2009 stimulus, the administration’s financial reform law, Obamacare, Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy, and the falling deficit.
Nevertheless, despite the encouraging numbers, Furman also sought to underline the problems still facing the U.S. and the Obama administration as it continues to try to undo the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.
Specifically, he cited still-high long-term unemployment and slow wage growth. “We’d still like to see more wage growth,” he acknowledged. Nevertheless, he also pointed out that incomes have outpaced inflation, if only slightly, for the past two years, which hasn’t been true in recent years.
Obama has consistently received poor ratings for his handling of economic affairs over the past year, despite the dropping unemployment rate. In recent months, administration officials have tried to highlight favorable statistics relating to the labor market and output.
