Biden Administration Forgets Something While Comparing New Jobs To Trump’s First Year

White House chief of staff Ronald Klain on Friday disingenuously compared the number of jobs created during former President Donald Trump’s first year in office to the number of jobs created so far in President Joe Biden’s first year.

Klain, citing a Washington Post story from January 2018 that stated, “We can now compare Trump’s first year in office to his predecessors’. And in that comparison, Trump comes out looking pretty good,” tweeted, “Trump’s first year jobs record: 1.8 million new jobs. Biden’s first FIVE months: 3 million new jobs.”

Trump’s first year jobs record: 1.8 million new jobs.

Biden’s first FIVE months: 3 million new jobs.https://t.co/bEH1fFpFec

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) July 2, 2021

Klain neglected to mention that a prime reason for the number of new jobs during the Biden administration was the doleful effect of the coronavirus pandemic and the number of jobs that were lost. In June 2020, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported early in the pandemic:

Friday’s U.S. jobs report from the Labor Department is expected to show U.S. employers shed nearly 30 million positions from payrolls this spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—but that is just one of several varying estimates of job destruction. Other data suggest layoffs might have topped 40 million, while another count shows only about 20 million are tapping unemployment benefits. No matter the measure, job loss triggered by the pandemic is historically high and likely to leave a lasting mark on the U.S. economy.

Erica Groshen, a former Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner appointed by former President Barack Obama, told WSJ, “Depending on how you count it, you’re talking about something like a quarter of all U.S. jobs being disrupted by the pandemic.”

By mid-December 2020, CNBC noted, “During the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, some 22 million U.S. workers lost their jobs. In response to these record-breaking numbers, many White House officials promised that a swift “V-shaped” recovery would occur once the pandemic was under control. Since then, many have returned to work, but there are still 10 million fewer U.S. jobs than before the pandemic began.”

“Trump created 6.6 million jobs before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the economy down. The new jobs his policies created represented a 4.3% increase over the 152.2 million people working at the end of Obama’s term,” The Balance pointed out in April 2021, adding, “In response to COVID-19, Trump signed The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020 to restore jobs (20.5 million of which would be lost in April alone) through several forms of assistance to businesses, including: Employee retention credits of 50% on up to $10,000 in wages for each employee, payroll tax credits and deferrals, and loans to cover payroll costs.”

NBC News reported in early May 2021, “The U.S. economy gained 266,000 jobs last month, far short of the more than 1 million economic analysts predicted. … Economists had expected to see the jobs market power back in April as millions of recently vaccinated Americans started returning to activities like traveling and dining out.”

“Some economists say employers, particularly in the restaurant and entertainment industry, have been struggling to find workers because Biden’s relief package which included extended pandemic benefits for the unemployed, is deterring some workers from returning to their old job or seeking out a new position,” NBC News noted, adding, “Bank of America estimates that for those who were earning less than $32,000 a year before the pandemic, unemployment pays more than their former job. And, the bank estimates, that could keep 1 million people out of the workforce.”

In May, Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler slammed Biden after Biden tweeted out a graphic comparing the job growth during his first three months in office to the job growth during Trump’s first three months in office.

“It’s totally ridiculous to pretend that jobs growth in the early months of a presidency has much to do with administration policies,” Kessler tweeted.

Now do the first three months of Obama. -2.2 million jobs! https://t.co/5NhvVerSWV

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 7, 2021

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