Remarks by President Biden on the November Jobs Report

WHITE HOUSE -- BRIEFING ROOMRemarks by President Biden on the November Jobs Report

DECEMBER 03, 2021•SPEECHES AND REMARKS
State Dining Room

10:46 A.M. EST
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning.  Before I start, I’d like to report that later today, I’ll be signing the bill funding the government operations for the next few months. 
 
Funding the government isn’t a great achievement.  (Laughs.)  It’s a bare minimum of what we need to get done. 
 
But in these times, a bipartisan cooperation is worth recognition, so I want to thank Senators Schumer and McConnell, and Speaker Pelosi for getting this done. 
 
And I want to thank the substantial bipartisan vote in the Senate for sending this bill to my desk today to avoid disruption of government operations.  And I want to urge Congress to use the time this bill provides to work toward a bipartisan agreement on a full-year funding bill that makes the needed investments in our economy and our people, from public health, to education, to our national security.  
 
Now, for today’s news.  Every year, December brings the joys of the holiday season and gives us an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by, and look ahead and begin to imagine the new year to come. 
 
This year, we can reflect on some extraordinary bit of progress.  Our economy is markedly stronger than it was a year ago.  And today, the incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2 percent. 
 
At this point in the year, we’re looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever.  Simply put, America — America is back to work and our jobs recovery is going very strong. 
 
Today’s historic drop in unemployment rate includes dramatic improvements for workers who have often seen higher wages and higher levels of unemployment — excuse me, higher levels of unemployment.  They are receiving higher wages.  And the rate of Black and Hispanic unemployment is also dropping sharply. 
 
But that’s not just jobs that are up.  Wages are up, especially for hardworking Americans often ignored in past — in past recoveries.  Workers in transportation and warehouses have seen their wages go up approximately 10 percent this year.  Workers in hotels and restaurants have seen their wages go up 13 percent this year. 
 
And thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we’ve delivered significant tax cuts to families raising children.  Tax cuts and rising wages for middle-class families mean that Americans, on average, have more in their pockets today than they did each — in each month since we’ve been in office than they did last year after accounting for inflation.  Let me repeat that: Even after accounting for rising prices, the typical American family has more money in their pockets than they did last year. 
 
In fact, we’re the only leading economy in the world where household income and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic. 
 
Applications for new small businesses are up 30 percent compared to before the pandemic.  Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we’re cutting child poverty in America by more than 40 percent.  And millions of children who spent last Christmas in poverty will not bear that burden this holiday season. 
 
Today’s news means that the unemployment rate has now fallen by more than two percentage points since I took office.  That’s the fastest decline in a single year on record.  And it’s about three times faster than any other President in their first year in office. 
 
The number of people claiming unemployment has fallen from 18 million when I took office, to 2 million this week.  Another record drop.   
 
We’ve also learned today that in November, 235,000 jobs were created in the private sector.  And when they went back and recalibrated, they found — the last two months — they found that job growth over the prior two months, September and October, actually created 82,000 more jobs than had previously been reported — which means that we’ve averaged nearly 400,000 new jobs a month over the last three months.  A solid pace.  
 
All told, in the first 10 full months of my administration, the economy has created 6 million jobs, a record for a new President.  This is a significant improvement from when I took office in January — a sign that we’re on the right track.
 
Because of the extraordinary strides we’ve made, we can look forward to a brighter, happier new year ahead, in my view.
 
But I also know that despite this progress, families are anxious.  They’re anxious about COVID.  They’re anxious about the cost of living and the economy more broadly.  They’re still uncertain.  I want you to know: I hear you.  It’s not enough to know that we’re making progress.  You need to see it and feel it in your own lives — around the kitchen table, in your checkbooks. 
 
Read full content