OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden appeared to cut a reporter off during remarks on Friday following a better-than-expected jobs report, pushing back on a question over whether he bears any responsibility for persistently high inflation during his first two years in office.
“Employers added 517,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, easily topping the 185,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. It marked the best month for job creation since July,” Fox Business reported following the release of the Labor Department’s report.
In a speech, Biden noted, “I wanted to say a few words about, oh, I think it’s strikingly good news that we just received. Next week, I’ll be reporting on the State of the Union. But today, today, I’m happy to report that the State of the Union and the state of our economy is strong.
“We learned this morning that the economy’s created 517,000 jobs just last month. More than half a million jobs in just the month of January. And in addition, we also learned that we — half a million more jobs created last year than we thought. So the January report is updated. I’m assuming the December report is updated. Add that all up,” he continued.
“It means we created 12 million, 12 million jobs since I took office. That means we have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term at any time, in two years. That’s the strongest two years of job growth in history by a long shot,” he said.
The vast majority of jobs returned as companies geared up again following layoffs and closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans have pointed out.
In any event, after speaking for about five minutes, a reporter asked the president, “Do you take any blame for inflation, Mr. President?”
“Do I take any blame for inflation? No!” Biden snapped in response.
“Why not?” the report persisted.
“Because it was already there when I got here, man. Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorrhaging. Inflation was rising. We weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here. We were in real economic difficulty. That’s why I don’t,” he said.
The stunning jobs report even shocked some industry experts.
“Today’s jobs report is almost too good to be true,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told Fox Business. “Like $20 bills on the sidewalk and free lunches, falling inflation paired with falling unemployment is the stuff of economics fiction. It’s almost as though we’re in a world with no tradeoffs.”
“The surprisingly, strong across-the-board January employment report shows that labor demand remains too hot for the economy’s own good and will embolden the Fed to raise rates more, not less,” added Kathy Bostjancic, the chief economist at Nationwide. “The risks are now that they might need to do more.”
Fox Business noted further:
Job gains were broad-based in January, with leisure and hospitality leading the way in hiring, adding 128,000 new workers. That was followed by employment in professional and business services (82,000), government (74,000), health care (58,200) and retail (30,100).
Wages also posted solid growth last month: Average hourly earnings rose 0.3%, in line with expectations, and are up 4.4% from a year ago.
While monthly jobs data is always important, the Fed has been closely watching the reports for signs the labor market is moderating from its frenzied pace as policymakers try to wrestle inflation – which is still running near a 40-year high – back to 2%.
“Payrolls blowing expectations out of the water adds more fuel to the Fed’s rate hike campaign,” noted Mike Loewengart, the head of model portfolio construction at Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office, Fox Business reported. “It’s going to get harder to argue that rate cuts may be in 2023’s future if the labor market is able to continue like this, especially considering that it remains to be seen how quickly inflation will fall, even if we have reached the peak.”
Republicans have argued that massive Democratic spending packages passed during a supply chain crisis made flooded the economy with money, making available products more expensive.
