The latest jobs numbers came out last Friday. Experts had predicted there would be about 1 million new jobs added. Drum roll please. Only about a quarter of the predicted 1 million jobs were realized – 266,000 to be exact.
Even a reliably pro-Biden press corps had trouble spinning this number as good news. In fact, the terms “disappointing” and “disastrous” were actually used by some reporters.
And it was quite a sight watching the President’s spokespeople, and Biden himself for that matter, try to explain the disappointing jobs number. First, they tried the old reliable, hey it’s Trump’s fault. And “we knew this wouldn’t be a sprint, it would be a marathon.” And “we just need to spend a whole lot more money.” Oh my God, we just haven’t spent enough!
In my opinion, perhaps the most outrageous spinning of these disastrous job numbers by the Biden administration (and some of their mouthpieces in the mainstream press) is that there is no relationship between the record high level of unemployment payments and some people deciding not to go back to work.
And I want to emphasize the “some” people. Many, probably most, people who were laid off or otherwise lost employment due to COVID want to, are trying to, are desperate to, return to their old position or seek other employment to support themselves and/or their family. But when a significant number of people can literally earn more sitting home and not working, than they can by working, well the choice they make helps to explain the disappointing jobs number last Friday.
As you may know, for the last six years, I was either the chairman or the ranking member (depending on which party was in power) of the House Small Business Committee. And in that capacity I’ve spoken to hundreds and hundreds of small business owners. And the vast majority of them described just how difficult it has been to get SOME people to come back to work or to fill openings due to excessively high unemployment payments. (Let me remind my readers that there is currently a federal unemployment payment – it started out at $600 per week – on top of the state unemployment compensation being paid.)
After Democrats took over complete control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, they ignored all warnings about extending the federal unemployment payments, and have done so anyway. In my view, that is the principal reason we’ve seen the disappointing jobs number. Hopefully Democrats will come to their senses. Unfortunately, the Bernie Sanders/AOC mindset, that a huge national debt really doesn’t matter, that there will always be more rich out there to soak, and that money grows on trees, is still firmly in control.
That is going to change in November 2022, but can we survive until then?