07/05/2021
Biden on June jobs report: ‘Our economy is on the move, and we have Covid-19 on the run’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded to the June jobs numbers on Friday, saying the strong growth in employment reflects the success of his American Rescue Plan relief bill this spring and his administration’s nationwide vaccination campaigns.
“We’re proving to the naysayers and the doubters that they were wrong,” Biden said Friday morning at the White House.
“More jobs, better wages — that’s a good combination. Put simply, our economy is on the move, and we have Covid-19 on the run,” he said.
Job growth leaped higher in June with the U.S. economy rapidly recovering, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 850,000 for the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate of 706,000 and better than the upwardly revised 583,000 in May. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 5.9% against the 5.6% expectation.
The June report was the first to fully account for the impact of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s May 13 announcement that fully vaccinated adults no longer need to wear masks outdoors in crowds or in most indoor settings.
The announcement had a domino effect on state-level mask mandates, helping to draw Americans back to office buildings, health-care providers and other activities they had avoided during the past year.
