COMMENTARY: Biden’s job numbers charade

The presidential debate dramatically exposed the elaborate ruse to hide Biden’s fading faculties. The press, embarrassed by being so easily deceived, isn’t likely to be so easily fooled again by the White House. Good for them.

Now that we have a press properly scrutinizing the presidency, perhaps it’s time we end the charade on one of the administration’s loudest — and most misleading — assertions: job creation.

Biden claims he created more jobs than any president. Here’s a typical missive: “Under Bidenomics, our economy has created 15 million jobs and unemployment has remained under 4 percent for the longest stretch in 50 years.”

Granted, even many administration skeptics have been surprised by the robustness of the labor market.Still, even the independent Federal Reserve doesn’t appear to be buying these numbers. A Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report shows real job growth is 80 percent less than the administration claims. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said more diplomatically: “There’s an argument that they may be a bit overstated.”

You don’t say.

Something fishy is undoubtedly going on with the government’s monthly job numbers. The process usually goes like this: Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases jaw-dropping job reports, which are widely reported with great fanfare. Then the magic happens. The figures are quietly revised downward, sometimes significantly so.

In 2023, job gains were revised downward 10 times, nearly every month. And in 2024, a presidential election year as coincidence would have it, every single report has been extensively revised.

This is a critical problem. One in four jobs that Biden claimed to create in 2023 was subsequently revised down. This sum for 2023 is 770,000 phantom jobs. Full-time employment dropped by more than 1.7 million from November 2023 to the end of March 2024, the most significant drop in employment since the Great Recession (not including the brief drop during the pandemic shutdown).

Statistics such as these are buried, but they probably feel more accurate to Americans than the administration’s proud assertions that the economy is in a “Goldilocks” zone.

Why does the Bureau of Labor Statistics consistently overestimate job creation? There are many theories. Some speculate that with the cost of living exploding in recent years, more Americans are taking multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Another plausible explanation is that the estimated 10 million illegal aliens in this country are taking many of these jobs, which makes the unemployment rate appear lower than it is. Perhaps there is political interference at the statistical agencies, with Biden’s political appointees pressuring career statisticians to make the job numbers look better for their beleaguered boss. It wouldn’t be the first time. Or perhaps it’s a mixture of these and more.

The Financial Fairness Alliance is announcing its investigation to find the administration’s phantom jobs. FFA seeks to find the root cause of this pantomime, using Freedom of Information Act requests to reveal what government actors are doing. It’s unacceptable for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to hazard this many errors in its job reports.

Fuzzy government math is a danger to the integrity of our financial markets and, ultimately, to consumers. Accurate statistics and economic forecasts are essential to a well-functioning and fair economy — let alone a well-functioning and fair government.

If the current drama regarding Biden’s fitness teaches us anything, it’s this: The American people will not tolerate gaslighting from any administration.

It’s time to end the charade.

Justin Bis is the executive director of the Financial Fairness Alliance. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.