November’s jobs report is out, and while it boasts 227,000 new hires and a slight bump in hourly wages, it’s hard to ignore the cracks forming under the Biden administration’s “everything is fine” façade. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, and while some sectors like leisure and health care saw growth, others—like retail—took a nosedive, losing 28,000 jobs during what should be the peak of holiday hiring. Let that sink in: at a time when shoppers should be flooding stores, retailers are shedding jobs. A holiday miracle, Biden-style.
Manufacturing saw a modest gain of 22,000 jobs, but that comes after a dismal October where it shed 48,000 positions. Warehousing and transportation barely moved the needle, adding just 3,400 jobs—hardly a sign of a robust supply chain recovery. Meanwhile, state and local governments bloated their payrolls by 20,000 jobs. Because nothing says economic progress like expanding the bureaucracy while private-sector growth stagnates.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.4%, a glimmer of hope for workers—until you remember that inflation has been eating away at paychecks faster than Biden can stutter through a speech. Year-over-year, earnings are up 4%, but with inflation hovering near 8%, real wages are still going backward. The average workweek also crept up to 34.3 hours, suggesting people are working more just to keep up, not because the economy is thriving.
The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates in September to stave off an economic slowdown seems more like a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. The hiring rate is still well below pre-pandemic levels, leaving economists debating whether businesses are hesitant to hire or simply unable to find workers. Either way, it’s a problem the Biden administration has failed to address meaningfully.
Contrast this mess with Trump’s economic policies, which fueled record job growth, historic wage increases, and manufacturing booms that didn’t require government handouts or excuses. Biden’s America is a tale of bloated bureaucracy, shrinking paychecks, and an economy on life support. Democrats can blame “storms and strikes” all they want, but the real storm is their inability to lead, and the real strike is on the wallets of hardworking Americans.
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