U.S. President Joe Biden makes remarks on the June job report on July 2, 2021 in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House, Washington.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden responded to June employment numbers Friday, saying the strong employment growth reflected the success of his aid bill to the US bailout this spring and his government’s nationwide vaccination campaigns.
“We prove to the naysayers and doubters that they were wrong,” said Biden on Friday morning in the White House.
“More jobs, better wages – that’s a good combination. Simply put, our economy is on the move and we have Covid-19 on the run, ”he said.
Employment growth spiked in June while the US economy rebounded rapidly, the Department of Labor reported on Friday.
The non-farm workforce rose 850,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 706,000 and better than May’s upwardly revised 583,000. However, the unemployment rate rose from 5.6% to 5.9% compared to expectations.
The June report was the first to fully take into account the impact of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s May 13 announcement that fully vaccinated adults would no longer need to wear masks outdoors in crowds or in most indoor spaces.
The announcement had a knock-on effect on state-level mask mandates and helped pull Americans back into office buildings, health care providers, and other activities they’d avoided over the past year.
Biden hailed Independence Day weekend as a reason to celebrate more milestones than just the end of the mask requirement.
“Great things happen,” he said. “The economy is growing faster than ever before in 40 years, we have a record number of new jobs, Covid deaths have fallen by 90%, wages are rising faster than ever before in 15 years, we are bringing our troops home. .. and all over America people go to ball games and do good. “
Employee hiring accelerated as the second quarter turned into a summer that will almost return to normal for Americans who cut back on their activities last year due to pandemic-related restrictions.
With the data continuing to point upwards, economists expect GDP growth of nearly 10% in the second quarter. It’s a staggering continuation of a recovery backed by vaccines that have greatly reduced Covid-19 case rates, as well as hospital admissions and deaths.
The latest numbers bring the overall rebound in jobs after the pandemic’s losses to 15.6 million.
More than 22.3 million Americans were laid off due to government business restrictions in March and April 2020, and total employment is still 7.13 million below February 2020.
“Today’s job news got us celebrating something else,” said Biden.
The president will spend Saturday in Michigan to celebrate the success of the vaccination campaign and to introduce his bipartisan infrastructure bill.
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