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Economist Explains Why Jobs Report Being Touted By Democrats Is Actually ‘Very Troubling’

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1 year ago

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President Biden and other top Democrat leaders have taken a victory lap over the latest jobs report that “soared past expectations” by showing that the U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September. While the Biden Administration has hailed the report as a win for “Bidenomics,” an economist with the Heritage Foundation took to X to explain why the report is actually “very troubling.”

“September was another good month for American workers, with 336,000 jobs created and inflation coming down,” Biden wrote in an X post Friday. The president then proceeded to once again repeat the dubious claim that his administration has created 14-million jobs since he took office, a figure that includes workers who returned to their jobs after they were forced out due to government-mandated lockdowns.

Biden is not the only Democrat leader to tout the latest jobs report as a success. “Bidenomics is good for workers, it’s good for the middle class, and it’s good for America,” said Hillary Clinton. California Governor Gavin Newsom opted to repeat the “14-milion jobs” claim and counted COVID-related layoffs against former President Trump.

Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni analyzed the findings further in a lengthy X thread, however, explaining why the report is “very troubling.”

“September nonfarm payrolls jump 336k; Unemployment rate flat at 3.8%; Labor force participation rate remains depressed at 62.8%; Those not in the labor force rose to roughly 5 million more than pre-pandemic – this is artificially pushing down unemployment rate,” Antoni wrote. When adjusting for true labor participation rate, Antoni pegged the actual unemployment rate between 6.3 and 6.8 percent.

Antoni also pointed out that roughly 22 percent of jobs created came from the government, “an unsustainable increase.”

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“Remember that private sector workers have to support those public sector jobs,” he continued.

The economist also noted that every single job created was part-time, pointing out that 1.2 million part-time jobs have been created over the last three months. Full-time jobs actually dropped by 700,000 over the same period, the highest figure since COVID-19 lockdowns.

In addition, double counting of multiple jobholders accounted for 37 percent of supposed gains.

Antoni concluded by pointing out that the massive increase in part-time jobs is slowing down wage growth. “Lastly, the loss of full-time jobs and their replacement w/ part-time work is helping slow wage growth, which is then negative after adjusting for inflation – real weekly earnings fell dramatically until Jun ’22 and have moved sideways since,” Antoni wrote.

“People [are] supplementing incomes w/ part-time jobs are goosing the headline numbers while underlying economic fundamentals remain weak; people absent from workforce pushing down unemployment rate; earnings not keeping up with inflation; don’t expect the job gains to last.”



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