LANSING —Today, after the U.S. Department of Labor announced that nonfarm payrolls increased by a whopping 943,000 jobs in July, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes released the following statement:
“In the six months since President Biden took office, unemployment has fallen sharply to 5.4 percent and more than four million jobs have been created — yet another indicator that Democrats continue to deliver for working families. While Republicans at home and in Washington work to block that progress, Democrats like President Biden and Governor Whitmer are providing the stable leadership our state and our economy needs.
“Now it’s time to build on the success of the American Rescue Plan and pass the president’s jobs and infrastructure plan to invest in America’s future and continue to build back better from the bottom up and the middle out.”
Here’s a look at the economic progress our country has made thanks to President Biden and Democrats’ leadership:
- The unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent in July, down from 5.9 percent in June, and the United States has now recovered approximately 75 percent of jobs lost during the pandemic.
- In the past six months, the economy has gone from creating only 60,000 new jobs a month to creating 60,000 jobs roughly every two days. In total, the economy has added a record-shattering four million jobs since the president took office.
- The average number of new unemployment insurance claims has been cut by more than half and small business optimism has returned to its 2019 average.
- Independent projections from the CBO, the IMF, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, the OECD, and many others all forecast America this year reaching the highest levels of economic growth in nearly four decades.
- The economy has grown at a 6.4% annualized rate so far this year—far higher than forecasters had predicted at the end of last year.
- Paychecks are growing at the strongest rate before the pandemic since 2006, as companies are competing for workers and boosting wages as a result.
- New analysis by the Urban Institute estimates that President Biden’s American Rescue Plan will lead to a nearly 45% decline in the number of Americans living in poverty this year.
- 90 percent of families with children will get an average tax cut of $4,380 this year, thanks to the American Rescue Plan. The Child Tax Credit could help cut child poverty in half by next year.
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