Slowed job growth shows weakness of Bidenomics – Washington Examiner

Two pieces of labor market data released midweek depict a bleaker picture of the economy than the one commonly touted by President Joe Biden. 

A Bureau of Labor Statistics report from Tuesday shows that job openings fell to the lowest level in April since February 2021. The 8.06 million jobs available, down 300,000 from March, came in significantly lower than the 8.4 million jobs that were estimated. 

Despite the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 175,000, private payroll growth fell to 152,000 jobs in the month of May, according to ADP. That’s the lowest for a month since January.

Underlying these gloomy labor market facts are constant pronouncements of optimism spouted by the likes of the New York Times, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Biden himself. Equal parts patronizing and misleading, these far-too-common declarations of mass job growth clearly ignore a more thorough inspection of the labor market. 

The ratio of job openings to available workers is now, ironically and sadly, just one. That number had gone as high as two during the job openings peak of March 2022. And despite the fact that the ADP report shows that jobs have indeed been added to the economy in the last month, the services industry disproportionately ate up that 152,000 number. Goods producers contributed just 3,000 jobs, and with losses of 20,000 in manufacturing and 36,000 for small businesses, it’s no surprise many people aren’t just blindly agreeing with Biden and his positive assertions. 

A lot of the arguments coming from Biden supporters rely solely on macroeconomic data. They reference the low unemployment rate, GDP growth, and mass job increases. 

Relatively apparent to most is the fact that zooming in on a family or an individual (you know, an actual human being) yields a different realization: The economy might be decent when you look at it from a holistic perspective, but real people and real families are struggling. You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in economics to read the prices of gas and groceries. People aren’t falling for the whole “maybe if you understood economics, you would feel better” argument. 

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And yet, ironically enough, that argument in and of itself is starting to fall flat on its face. Does nearly 19% lower job openings compared to a year ago sound good to you? 

There are blind spots in the labor market, but don’t expect Vice President Kamala Harris or economist Paul Krugman to tell you that.