Here’s a handy de-coding chart for you…
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Team Biden is stumping hard this week to “message” that Joe’s economic plan is working splendidly …. and that any perceptions of a bad economy are simply that: “perceptions”.
About those “perceptions”…
Biden has a 35.5% approval rating on handling the economy in the RealClearPolitics average because:
(a) Ordinary families are feeling the pain first-hand and they “believe their lyin’ eyes” every time that they pass a gas station price sign or (try to) shop at a grocery store.
(b) Everybody knows deep down that jobs have returned because pandemic shutdowns are ending, not because of anything constructive that Biden has done.
Let’s dive down on that second point: new job creation.
Below is the Fed chart of total non-farm employment going back to the start of the Trump administration … with a couple of defining milestones.
(A) Employment was 143.2 million when Trump took office.
(B) Prior to the Covid lockdowns, total employment reached 152.5 million … an increase of 9.3 million
(C) The Covid lockdown sidelined 22 million workers … employment dropped to 130.5 million
(D) In the final year of the Trump administration, about 12 million jobs were regained … pushing employment back up to 142.5 million (which was 700k lower than when Trump took office)
(E) Currently — after a about a year of Biden — employment is at 151.3 million … up 8.8 million since his inauguration … but still 1.2 million lower than the pre-Covid level
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My take
(1) Seems reasonable to credit Trump with about 9 million jobs created during the “normal” period preceding the Covid pandemic.
(2) Less reasonable to tag Trump with “causing” the destruction of 22 million jobs during the Covid pandemic … true, he OK’ed the lockdowns … but, it’s reasonable to argue that the job losses were transitory, i.e. regainable once the pandemic passed.
(3) To that last point, during Trump’s last year, about 12 million of the Covid-related job losses were regained (i.e. not “created”)
(4) Since Biden’s inauguration, another 8.8 million jobs were regained from the Covid drop … pushing employment up to 151.3 million … still more than 1 million shy of the the nation’s pre-Covid employment level.
So, is Biden — as he claims — the greatest job creation president ever?
Those are the numbers … draw your own conclusion.
The Homa Files 
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