New Mexico Republican gubernatorial candidate Jay Block spoke out after the national economy fell more than 500,000 jobs short of expectations in the August jobs report as the delta variant of COVID-19 showed no signs of slowing.
“More bad news under the Biden economy,” Block posted on Twitter. “Huge miss.”
Final numbers put the new jobs tally in the neighborhood of 235,000, well short of the 750,000 that economists had projected would be gained.
While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the overall unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent, all indications are that the level of economic anxiety stands at an all-time high as the lingering impact of the pandemic continues to be felt.
Block isn’t alone in expressing disappointment.
“To have today’s numbers, 235,000, is really surprising,” former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao told the Washington Examiner. “This is way below expectations.”
Chao, who led the department for eight years commencing in 2001, highlights the effect of growing apprehension amid the rise of the delta variant of COVID-19, noting how the travel industry has particularly suffered.
The leisure and hospitality sectors also suffered in the latest report as households curtailed such outings as infection rates ticked upward.
Further complicating the situation, business owners across the board continue to bemoan the trouble they’re experiencing in finding and retaining workers. In order to entice applicants, some have resorted to hiking wages and offering incentives that include signing bonuses.
At the same time, some contend the economy stands in peril of overheating to the point of facing rising inflation. According to Department of Labor statistics, consumer prices increased by more than 5% in the year ending in July, and consumer sentiment has also dipped to its lowest level in a decade, according to the University of Michigan.
With the most recent jobs report representing the last one before the federal unemployment benefits program hiking benefits by $300 per week, the July to August decline highlighted the third-sharpest plunge after April of last year, when it fell 19.4%, and during the 2008 recession, when it fell 18.1% in October of that year, the Washington Examiner reported.