Remarks by President Biden on the August Jobs Report
SEPTEMBER 03, 2021
Location: Not determined

10:41 A.M. EDT
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning.  I’m sorry I’m a few minutes late.  We’re getting ready to head down to Louisiana and I had a few things I had to do.
 
Look, we — as we head into Labor Day weekend, we have more evidence of the progress of our economy from last year’s economic calamity.
 
Today, we learned the economy created 235 new — thousand — new jobs in August.  And the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent, the lowest it has been in 18 months.
 
But despite the impact of the Delta variant — and I’ll talk a little more about that in a minute — what we’re seeing is an economic recovery that is durable and strong.
 
The Biden plan is working.  We’re getting results.  America is on the move again.  And today’s revision of previous month job gains, with the revision of the July numbers — this report means that we have been adding an average of 750,000 jobs per month, on average, during the past three months.
 
And in the three months before I became President?  Well, we were adding 60,000 jobs a month.
 
The total job creation in the first seven months
of my administration is nearly double — double any prior first-year President. 
 
While I know some wanted to see a larger number today, and so did I, what we’ve seen this year is a continued growth, month after month, in job creation.  It’s not just that I’ve added more jobs than any first-year President — in the first year of any President — it’s that we’ve added jobs in every single one of my first seven job reports.  And wages are going up.
 
Some more jobs — some — some mo- — some months are fewer, some months more, but always adding jobs.
 
This is the kind of growth that makes our economy stronger and consistent progress, and not boom or bust.
 
Our economy grew the first half of this year at the fastest rate in about 40 years.
 
We’re the only developed country in the world — I’ll say that again — we’re the only developed country in the world whose economy is now bigger than it was before the pandemic.
 
Because of the groundwork we laid with the American Rescue Plan, our vaccination — and our vaccination strategy, we’re seeing an economy and a job market that can weather the ups and downs of the Delta variant and anything else that comes our way.
 
You know, we have a lot more work to do, as I will discuss shortly.  But the facts speak for themselves.  Think of where this country stood on the day I was sworn in as President, and compare it to where we are today.
 
The number of people filing new claims for unemployment each week is down 57 percent.  Down 57 percent.
 
Child poverty is down nearly 50 percent.  We’re no longer seeing long lines of people waiting for boxes of food to be put in their trunk after waiting for hours, or sometimes up to two hours.
 
The unemployment rate is down, from 6.3 percent to 5.2.  And I believe it’s going to continue to go down. 
 
And it’s no wonder that last week’s Gallup poll found that 72 percent of Americans think that now is a good time to find a quality job.  At this time last year, that number was 30 percent.  And that’s the mark of an economy where regular people can see a place for themselves in the economy.
 
You know, the holidays we celebrate this weekend — the holiday, Labor Day, is about honoring the dignity of work, honoring the American worker.  And that’s what our economic strategy is all about as well.
 
It’s about growing our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, providing some extra breathing room for families —  and my dad would just say, “Just a little breathing room” — creating an environment where employers have truly com- — have to compete — compete for workers by providing higher wages and better benefits.
 
That’s what’s happening.  Wages are up, especially for working-class Americans.
 
Even so, even with the progress we’ve made, we’re not where we need to be in our economic recovery.  There are two critical tasks ahead this month to get us closer to our goal and to take the next steps in our recovery.
 
The first: We need to make more progress in fighting the Delta variant of COVID-19.  This is a continuing pandemic of the unvaccinated.  Since becoming President, I’ve ramped up testing, secured enough vaccine for every single American, and gotten 175 million Americans fully vaccinated.  
 
Still — still, too many have not gotten vaccinated.  And it’s creating a lot of unease in our economy and around our kitchen tables. 
 
Today’s report shows that the steps we’ve taken, passing the Rescue Plan and vaccinating 175 million people, make our economy capable of growing and adding jobs even in the face of this continuing Delta surge.  A strength in our economy very different from the way things were last winter.
 
There’s no question the Delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger.  I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number.
 
But next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the Delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns.
 
I want to talk about how we’ll further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy, and our families from the threat of Delta.  As we continue to fight the Delta variant, the American Rescue Plan we passed continues to support families, businesses, and communities.  Even as some of the benefits that were provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits and the federal resources from the Rescue Plan to do so.  Not more federal taxes, state taxes, but they have the federal money to be able to do that. 
 
States continue to have access to a wide array of support, like help for schools that are reopening, help for childcare centers to make them available and affordable, and other resources to help our economy get back to normal.
 
The measures we’ve taken so far have brought America out of an economic freefall, steadied us, and enabled us to grow our economy even as we combat — continue to combat COVID. 
 
We are adding jobs, not losing them. 
 
The fight against COVID today is far different from the fight we were waging last winter.
 
The second thing that has to happen in September is for the Congress — the House and Senate — to finish the job of passing my economic agenda so that we can keep up the historic momentum we’ve been building these last seven months.  It’s about investing in America’s future, not about short-term stimulus; that’s not what we’re talking about. 
 
These are long-term prosperity we’re talking about — about lowering the cost of living for families, creating millions of good-paying jobs for hardworking Americans.  It’s about reducing bottlenecks in our economy, reducing long-term price pressures.  It’s about helping more people to work by helping ease the burden that parents bear, especially mothers, keeping them out of the job market. 
 
Both the Senate and the House have taken important steps forward to pass my bipartisan infrastructure plan.  This bill is going to end years of gridlock.  We used to — remember when we had — we always had — you know, the whole notion we had, I guess, was every week was going to be infrastructure week?
 
Well, both literally and figuratively, it’s going to change things on our streets across the country and, figuratively, as it relates to Washington. 
 
We’re going to create millions of good-paying jobs.  We’re going to ease inflationary pressure and allow us to win the competition of the 21st century in a global economy where the competition has become more intense.
 
Look, it’s historic investment in roads, in rail, in transit and bridges, in clean energy, in clean water, universal broadband.  It’s going to modernize our energy grid.  You need not go any further than look what’s happening across the country now in terms of the energy grids.  It’s about resilience.  Make our roads and highways safer.  Make us more resilient to the kinds of devastating impacts from extreme weather we’re seeing in so many parts of the country.
 
And, look, this is about good-paying jobs for ordinary people, blue-collar workers.  Jobs at prevailing wage — not $15 an hour, or $20 or $30.  But for the carpenters and pipe-fitters, plumbers, electrical workers, and so many other Americans, about 90 percent of the jobs we’ll create with this plan won’t require a college degree.  It will fundamentally transform the lives of millions of people.  It’s going to transform America and propel us into the future, just as we did when we built the transcontinental railroad or we electrified the country — the TVA.
 
Look, at the same time, the House and Senate have to advance my Build Back Better agenda.  That bill contains critical investments in childcare to make it easier for families to be able to go to work and assure their child is being taken care of, and home care for seniors.  The polling data shows: Among your generation — all of you out here — your greatest concern is caring for your elderly parent, even more than your child.