Brady: Biden 'falls short' of employment goal in spite of record-breaking labor force participation rates

Despite the rising employment rate during the month of July, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) notes that the Biden administration has fallen short of its job count goal by 300,000.

“Thanks in part to Republican governors removing the Biden work barrier that pays the jobless more to stay home than to work, the July jobs report finally met expectations—although the president’s jobs deficit still remains high at 298,000 and Main Street businesses are still struggling to find workers,” a press release by the GOP Committee on Ways and Means stated.

The president initially projected the creation of 2.399 million jobs by the end of June 2021, according to estimates made by Moody’s Analytics. Lower unemployment rates were noted by The Bureau of Labor Statistics in a recent report, indicating 5.4% unemployment, stating that employment rose by 943,000, and labor force engagement spiked to 61.7%. In addition, hourly wages have increased an average of 11 cents.

“The labor force participation rate still hasn’t improved in 2021, which is a red flag for tepid growth ahead,” a press release stated. “And while we will get the full data in mid-August, it appears rising prices will continue to beat wage growth for a seventh consecutive month, meaning inflation under President Biden will continue to shrink the purchasing power of families.”

The democratic administration highlighted its ability to help the country’s workforce rate rise to record-breaking figures, higher than any other record in the last four decades. The growth is mainly attributed to the resumption of market movement and consumers following massive suspensions and delays, VOA news notes.

"We've gone from 60,000 jobs per month to 60,000 jobs every three days — more than 600,000 jobs per month since I took office,” Biden said. “More than 3 million new jobs all told. That's the fastest growth, I'm told, at this point in any administration's history."

But Brady asserts that the growth is insufficient, and that data suggests a lack of improvement this year, raising red flags of insufficient labor effort in the near future. The representative asserts Biden fell short of his goal of 2.399 million jobs by the end of June, GOP CWM reports. Similarly, some economists voiced concern that Biden's efforts to jumpstart the economy could lead to another recession. 

"I think he can justifiably take credit for having got an effective vaccination program going," said Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. "That means that people can go back to work and that all those industries that got pretty hard hit by the pandemic can spring back."