Daily US Times: President Joe Biden insists an unexpected slowdown in companies’ hiring new employees is clear new proof the United States needs the multitrillion-dollar federal boost he’s pushing. But his sales effort is challenged by critics who say jobs report published on Friday show his earlier aid legislation — successfully rushed through Congress — is actually doing more harm than good.
Joe Biden’s promised economic comeback hardly stalled on Friday. But it seemed to sputter a bit with a report that found merely modest April job gains of 266,000 and complicated his new $4 trillion push for infrastructure, education and children.
The employment report failed to show that the US economy was accelerating so much as stutter-stepping along as the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1%.
Economists had projected roughly 1m added jobs last month, and the modest hiring indicated that the earlier $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package has provided an uneven boost so far.
The figures put Mr Biden with a fresh challenge at a critical moment in his presidency. He is betting that an open embrace of massive government spending will help resolve the country’s public financial and health turmoil — and lift the political prospects for Democrats heading into next year’s elections.
But the disappointing jobs report could also embolden Biden’s critics and stiffen the Republican resistance to the infrastructure package the US president is trying to push through Congress.
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