Statement of President Joe Biden on Unemployment Insurance Claims

Statement

This morning, we learned that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment has fallen to its lowest levels since the pandemic began -- six out of seven weeks of declining claims, and a nearly 60% drop in average claims from the week I took office. That is encouraging news for so many American families who have found a new opportunity and a little bit of breathing room as we continue to build back from last year's economic devastation. Most importantly, along with seven consecutive positive job reports that have seen us gain nearly 4.5 million jobs since my Administration began, this decline in unemployment claims is further evidence of a durable economic recovery.

Despite the ongoing impact of the Delta variant, the evidence is clear: the Biden plan is working, we are seeing real results, and the American economy is on the move again. After anemic job growth of just 60,000 jobs per month in the three months before my first full month in office, we've now added 750,000 jobs per month over the last three months -- and nearly doubled the previous record for job creation of any prior first-year President seven months in. Our economy grew in the first half of the year at the fastest rate in nearly 40 years. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in August -- the lowest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic. And we are the only developed country in the world whose economy is now bigger than it was before the pandemic struck.

We still have a great deal of work to do to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, but the American people can be confident in our strategy -- and they are. A recent Gallup poll found that 72% of Americans think that now is a good time to find a quality job: a higher number not only than what we saw throughout the pandemic, but higher than at any point in 2019 as well. That is the mark of an economy where regular Americans can see a place for themselves -- an economy built on rising wages and the dignity of all people. With smart investments in American families and in America itself, we will continue to make consistent progress and build back better.

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