- President Joe Biden blamed the coronavirus pandemic on a surprisingly weak job report.
- He called on Americans who have not yet been vaccinated even in the midst of the spread of the highly infectious delta variant of Covid-19.
- Non-farm payrolls in August rose just 235,000, well below the economist’s estimates of 720,000 jobs.
U.S. President Joe Biden makes statements about the end of the war in Afghanistan at the White House state dining hall on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Friday blamed the coronavirus pandemic for a surprisingly weak job report, and called on Americans who have not yet been vaccinated even in the midst of the spread of the highly infectious delta variant.
Non-farm payrolls in August rose just 235,000, the Department of Labor reported, well below the 720,000 new hires economists predicted. The report showed the smallest total monthly jobs since January.
“There is no doubt that the delta variant is why the current labor report is not stronger,” Biden told the White House shortly after the data was released.
Biden, who has spent much of his first stint at the White House focused on the pandemic, said, “We need to make more progress in the fight against the delta variant.”
Despite the government’s continued vaccination push, tens of millions of eligible Americans have not yet received a single dose of a Covid shot. Biden said this group prolongs the pandemic and contributes to the anxieties affecting the economy.
“This is an ongoing pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the president said. “There are too many people who have not been vaccinated and are creating great unrest in our economy and around our kitchen tables.”
Less than 64% of American adults, approximately 175 million people, are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Children under 12 are not yet eligible to receive the shots; Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-shot Covid vaccine, the only one to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, is only available to people over the age of 16.
Biden acknowledged the report’s weak figures: “I was expecting a higher number,” he said. However, he defended the economic progress the United States has seen under his administration.
“What we’re seeing is an economic recovery that’s lasting and strong. The Biden plan works. We’re getting results.”
The president highlighted the decrease in the unemployment rate, to 5.2% in the last report, of 6.3% in January.
He also mocked new steps the White House would take next week to combat the delta variant, suggesting actions would focus on protecting schools, businesses, families and the economy from the virus.
The spread of the delta variant has led to another increase in Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the country, with southern states especially affected. Florida has a higher Covid hospitalization rate than anywhere else in the United States and this week broke the record for the largest increase in single-day deaths, with 1,338 reported Thursday.
Some experts predict that there will be another climb to the northeast.
“Now, if we see a wave of infection as dense and severe as the south, I don’t think it’s because we have a lot more vaccination; we’ve had a lot of previous infection, which we also know is protective,” he told CNBC on Friday. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA chief for two years under then-President Donald Trump.
“But we’ll probably see an accumulation in cases here in the Northeast,” he said. “I don’t think we’re done with that.”