The Bureau of Labor Statistics released another round of good news late last week, with the U.S. economy adding 199,000 jobs in November. The same report showed the unemployment rate inching lower, from 3.9% to 3.7%.
Soon after, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, took a brief victory lap of sorts during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One:
“Today, we got more good economic news, as you all have seen, with 199,000 jobs created last month for a total of 14.1 million created under President Biden. Unemployment fell to 3.7% and has been under 4% for 22 months in a row, the longest stretch in 54 years. The last time unemployment was this low for this long — this is a fun fact — Diana Ross topped the charts and the Apollo program was visiting the moon. We have more work to do. Prices are still too high. But we are making progress.”
As regular readers know, I’m a fan of putting economic data in historical context. Earlier this year, for example, the unemployment rate reached 3.4% — the lowest since May 1969. (We hadn’t yet landed on the moon and Woodstock was still a few months away.)
With this in mind, it seemed worth taking a closer look at the White House’s latest boast. When was the last time the jobless rate in the United States fell below 4% and stayed there for 22 consecutive months? As it turns out, Jean-Pierre was correct.
The unemployment rate dropped below 4% in November 1967 — the fourth year of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency — and stayed there for 27 months.
Americans haven’t seen a comparable stretch until now: The jobless rate fell below 4% early last year, and it’s remained below that threshold since. As for the White House’s assertion that the economy has created 14.1 million job under President Joe Biden, observant readers might notice that in my post on Friday, I noted that the economy has created roughly 14.6 million jobs since January 2021 — which incidentally, is more than double the combined total of Donald Trump’s first three years in office. But which is correct? Is it 14.1 million or 14.6 million? The truth is, both numbers are accurate: In January 2021 — the month of Biden’s inauguration — the economy added nearly a half-million jobs. Jean-Pierre, erring on the side of caution, is starting the clock for Biden’s record in February 2021, not January 2021. Either way, there’s a reason Republicans generally have no interest in talking about the U.S. job market: Numbers like these are impressive on a historic scale.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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