US unemployment rises to 3.9% as Biden praises economy in State of the Union

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Friday that under the Biden administration during February the unemployment rate rose to 3.9 from 3.7 percent despite the economy adding 275,000 jobs.  

According to NBC News, analysts have begun calling the employment situation the "The Great Stay," with fewer workers leaving their jobs and hiring falling significantly, a reversal of three years ago that was dubbed "The Great Resignation."  

“We’re seeing that the job market is getting cooler,” said Guy Berger, the director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute. “It’s still not a bad one, but it’s looking more like what we saw in the mid 2010s — which was not a terrible job market but still a worse one than what we saw later that decade or what we had in the post-pandemic period.”  

In some industries, working hours have been cut down to recessionary levels. In manufacturing, hours worked decreased by 3.3 percent, the largest decline since the second quarter of 2020. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that people unemployed who are looking for work for 15-26 weeks has climbed 53 percent since March of 2022. 

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that cuts among temporary jobs have also picked up. He said that this often signals that cuts to full-time positions are in the distance. 

"It feels fragile," Zandi said. 

This comes as Biden praised the state of the US economy in his State of the Union address on Thursday evening. 

"I've been delivering real results in fiscally responsible ways," Biden said, claiming that the federal deficit has been cut by $1 trillion, and adding that he wants to cut the deficit by trillions more by making corporations "finally pay their fair share." He proposed a 25 percent tax on billionaires. 

Biden said that 15 million jobs had been added in three years under his administration, stating that this was a new record. The addition of these jobs comes after the Covid lockdowns brought the American economy to a halt. 

According to The Kobeissi Letter, 10 of the last 12 months of jobs reports saw revisions in the numbers of jobs added that resulted in lower jobs than previously reported.

Initially, it was reported that 353,000 jobs were added in January, but that number was revised to 229,000.

The November jobs report was revised from 199,000 jobs to 173,000. October saw a revision from 150,000 to 105,000. September’s report was revised to be lower by 74,000.