President Joe Biden on Friday touted the July jobs report that showed nearly 1million jobs added and a drop in the unemployment rate – but warned of the threat of the coronavirus Delta variant.
The jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the morning showed that 943,000 jobs were added last month and that the unemployment rate decreased to 5.4%. The jobs added exceeded the 870,000 that economists had predicted.
It represents the largest jobs gain since August 2020, when 1million positions were filled.
However, Biden said his message ‘is not one of celebration’.
‘It’s one to remind us we have a lot of hard work left to be done, both to beat the Delta variant and to continue our advance of economic recovery,’ Biden said in a briefing from the White House.
The president said the July jobs report was evidence that his policies are working in pushing the US economy to recovery from the pandemic.
‘Now while our economy is far from complete, and while we undoubtedly will have ups and downs along the way as we continue to battle the Delta surge of Covid, what is indisputable now is this: The Biden plan is working,’ the president said.
‘The Biden plan produces results, and the Biden plan is moving the country forward.’
Among the jobs added last month were 253,000 in restaurants and bars. The hospitality and leisure industries are the biggest contributors to job gains, as they were before the coronavirus lockdowns.
Biden said that the highly contagious is ‘taking a needless toll on our country’ and urged unvaccinated Americans to get the jab.
‘Today about 400 people will die because of the Delta variant in this country,’ he said. ‘A tragedy, because virtually all of these deaths were preventable if people had gotten vaccinated.’
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