Biden’s economy took a nosedive in September. Nonfarm payrolls only added 194,000 jobs when experts expected 500,000.
To make it worse, the Labor Department revised the August report up to 366,000 from 235,000.
That’s a huge dropoff. 366,000 to 194,000.
Biden said: “In total, the job creation in the first eight months of my administration is nearly five million jobs. Jobs up, wages up, unemployment down. That’s progress.”
Dude. The September jobs report sucks. Yeah, the unemployment rate went down, but not enough people are coming back to work:
The drop in the jobless rate came as the labor force participation rate edged lower, meaning more people who were sidelined during the coronavirus pandemic have returned to the workforce. A more encompassing number that also includes so-called discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons declined to 8.5%, also a pandemic-era low.“This is quite a deflating report,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed. “This year has been one of false dawns for the labor market. Demand for workers is strong and millions of people want to return to work, but employment growth has yet to find its footing.”
Wages increased as a way for companies to entice people to return to the workforce:
Despite the weak jobs total, wages increased sharply. The monthly gain of 0.6% pushed the year-over-year rise to 4.6% as companies use wage increases to combat the persistent labor shortage. The available workforce declined by 183,000 in September and is 3.1 million shy of where it was in February 2020, just before the pandemic was declared.“Labor shortages are continuing to put severe upward pressure on wages … at a time when the return of low-wage leisure and hospitality workers should be depressing the average,” wrote Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
But the higher wages could affect inflation, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s decision on monetary policy.
Companies want to hire. Experts thought jobs would skyrocket because benefits ran out and so many people got the vaccine:
Perhaps the biggest mystery right now is the shrunken labor force. With the expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, rising vaccination rates and higher wages, many economists predicted that workers would return to the labor force this fall. But last month, the labor-force participation rate—or the share of workers with a job or actively looking for one—dipped slightly to 61.6%, down from 63.3% in February 2020 ahead of the pandemic.“Ramped up production may be necessary, but you can’t find the employees to ramp it up,” said Ann Silver, head of the local Chamber of Commerce in Reno, Nev. “We’re hearing that from every sector—hospitality and touring, healthcare, you name it. People can’t be found. Everybody’s quick to say, ‘Wow, the economy is rebounding.’ Well, it can’t without human beings.”
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