You know the old saying – don’t count your chickens before they hatch?
Well, it looks like the Biden administration did just that with America’s job numbers.
For months, the White House bragged about adding nearly 400,000 jobs between July and September of last year.
President Biden even pointed to these numbers as proof that his economic plan – what critics call “Bidenomics” – was working.
But now?
New data from the government itself says those jobs… never really existed.
The Numbers Don’t Add Up
Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases early job numbers based on surveys.
These are called estimates. They’re like a guess based on a sample of businesses – kind of like polling people before an election.
That’s where the 399,000 new jobs number came from.
But later, the BLS double-checks those numbers using more complete data from unemployment insurance records. This is called the Business Employment Dynamics (BED) report.
Think of it like the final score after the game – not just a guess from the first quarter.
This week, the BED report showed that from July to September 2024, the private sector actually lost 1,000 jobs.
That’s right. While Biden’s team cheered about adding nearly 400,000 jobs, the real data says the country might have lost jobs instead.
This Isn’t a One-Time Mistake
This wasn’t just a one-time fluke, either.
Earlier reports claimed 398,000 jobs were added between March and June 2024. The new BED data says we actually lost 163,000 private-sector jobs during that time.
And from March 2023 to March 2024? The government had to quietly erase 598,000 jobs from the books after revising its numbers.
This kind of mistake has happened before under other presidents, but experts say the size of these corrections under Biden is the biggest we’ve seen in 15 years.
Why Does This Matter?
These phony job numbers gave Americans false hope about the economy.
While the Biden team painted a rosy picture, many families were feeling the pinch of inflation, sky-high credit card debt (which hit $1.2 trillion, by the way), and rising interest rates.
Critics also point out that even when jobs were created, they weren’t always what they seemed.
Some people are working two or three part-time jobs just to stay afloat. That can make job numbers look better than they really are.
As E.J. Antoni from the Heritage Foundation told PJ Media, “The Biden administration is cherry-picking the most flattering data they can find to distract from the mess they’ve made.”
The Bigger Picture
Yes, it’s true that the U.S. added around 14.8 million jobs since Biden took office in 2021.
But a lot of that was just recovering jobs lost during the pandemic lockdowns. Remember, we lost over 20 million jobs in April 2020 alone.
In other words, Biden is taking credit for jobs that were already on their way back as businesses reopened.
Even with those gains, the economy today is still weighed down by a 15% jump in inflation since Biden took office.
And the number of people actually working or looking for work – the labor force participation rate – is still lower than it was during the Trump era.
What Critics and Supporters Say
Supporters of the Biden administration argue that these revisions are routine and happen under every president.
They also point out that even with corrections, the job market under Biden looks stronger than it did after past recessions.
But critics, especially on social media, aren’t buying it.
Posts on X from conservative voices are calling the Biden job numbers “fake” and accusing the administration of “gaslighting” the American people.
“The truth is, Americans can feel when the economy isn’t working for them,” said Heritage’s Antoni. “No amount of spin from Washington can change that.”
Here’s what it all boils down to:
The Biden administration claimed the economy was booming, but the cold, hard facts say otherwise.
The government’s own data shows almost 400,000 jobs the White House bragged about simply weren’t there.
For working Americans, that means the economy wasn’t as strong as the headlines made it sound.
And as always, when the numbers don’t match the reality at your kitchen table, maybe it’s time to start asking more questions.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
