The political spin never stops for the Biden White House.

As we mentioned yesterday, the December jobs report was out and… yeah. Also important to note: the December numbers were collected BEFORE the Omicron wave began, so Team Biden can’t use that for an excuse.

Employers added 199,000 jobs in December, below average monthly job growth of 537,000 in 2021, the Labor Department said Friday. Slower job growth in recent months largely reflects companies’ inability to find workers as labor supply remains tight, some economists said.”

Last month’s payroll gains left the U.S. economy with about 6.4 million more jobs than at the end of 2020—a greater increase than in any year on record—but the nation remains 3.6 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels.”

The broader economy regained its footing with the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and strong demand from consumers armed with government stimulus who stoked spending. But the pandemic also delivered setbacks, including surges in virus cases and supply-chain disruptions that slowed growth.”

The labor market, while still recovering from the pandemic, is entering the year on much better footing than it did at the start of 2021. In recent months, job openings surged to historically high levels and workers quit their jobs at record rates.”

Friday’s jobs report captures hiring activity that occurred before the Omicron variant spread rapidly in late December. Though the variant has taken a toll on some businesses’ revenue, many employers are clinging to the workers they have as consumers continue to spend. Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, clocked in at 207,000 last week, near the lowest level in five decades.”

The 199,000 jobs is considered a big miss by economists. While the unemployment rate is down, there is an overwhelming sense that people haven’t come back to work – especially women and older age groups. But that doesn’t matter to the White House. Team Biden is desperate for some kind of win – have you seen his poll numbers? – and so they’re just going to be creative with the graphs in order to prove it.

Under President Biden, the economy has created more jobs per month than under any other President – ever. pic.twitter.com/yAQING1tT8

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 7, 2022

Oh, so we’re going with the “two cent decrease” style charts to celebrate, are we? Wow, I hope the White House graphics team doesn’t dislocate their shoulder while patting themselves on the back.

Let’s just say that the people were not entirely impressed with the creativity of the graphic.

I voted for Biden but this graph is hardcore misleading. Jobs created and filled are not the same thing. Additionally this kinda leaves out 3-4 million resignations on a month by month basis.

— Bacon and Bucs (@baconandbucs) January 7, 2022

He’s taking credit for jobs that were shut down and now re-opened. It’s dishonest

— indoctrinate (@indoctrinathan) January 8, 2022

https://twitter.com/ljack6468/status/1479837714333814787
While scrolling through the responses to the tweet, a few things were noticeable. The negative reactions far outweighed the positive ones, and there were very few “blue checks” commenting. So you have a lot of “everyday” people commenting about how misleading this chart is regarding the total job numbers.

The reality is, of course, that the economy was put into suspended animation due to COVID-19, and despite dumping trillions of dollars into recovery, the economy has not come “roaring” back. Biden can spin those total job numbers all he wants, but there was this thing called “15 Days 30 Days Whenever We Say It Ends To Slow The Spread” with “nonessential” jobs being closed, schools being closed, and fear being sowed into a population. The white collar class who can work from home assumes they can stay there forever… so long as the Uber Eats driver shows up with their order, what is taking so long??? The “work from home” class has almost no realization how they have built their lives on the convienence of other people’s labor, and is due for a rude awakening when suddenly there is no worker willing to come put groceries in the trunk of their car.

Here’s a messy and hopeful prediction for the future. The vaccine mandates for private business, currently under consideration by the Supreme Court, will be struck down. This will lead, along with the rapid spread of Omicron – a demonstrably less fatal variant of COVID-19 – and the looming midterm elections, to a hopeful weakening of COVID lockdown policies in this country. This could, in turn, lead to a true economic boom. Like I said, this is both messy and hopeful, and also relies on politicians accepting certain realities – which is why it is probably over-optimistic.

But rest assured, should the economic news be good or bad, the Biden White House will always have a chart taking credit for it.

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