Biden created the most jobs ever in his first year—but there's a reason 37% think the U.S. lost jobs

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For starters, here’s a few bullet points about the historic job growth under the stewardship of President Joe Biden:

• U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March—the 11th consecutive month of job growth above 400,000
• March’s job gains marked the longest such stretch of growth in records dating back to 1939, according to the Wall Street Journal
• “The economy has recovered more than 90 percent of the 22 million jobs lost in the spring of 2020, far surpassing initial forecasts,” according to the New York Times
• Workers have also seen healthy wage gains of 5.6% over the past year
• The unemployment rate sits at 3.6%, down from 6.4% when Biden took office
• President Biden’s economy created an average of 568,000 per month during his first year in office—the largest job growth in a single year by any U.S. president in recorded history

The long and the short of it is: President Biden isn’t just beating expectations on job growth coming out of the pandemic, he’s blowing expectations out of the water.

Except … inflation, which is a natural outgrowth of the hottest jobs market in nearly a century alongside rising prices. Money in people’s pockets means people are consuming goods at a faster pace than they were before, and the economy is struggling to keep. Pandemic-related supply chain issues that are delaying some products from reaching the market have also exacerbated the situation.

Inflation certainly hasn’t helped American consumers’ perceptions of the economy, and Republicans have been pounding home the message at every opportunity. Politico reported:

An official with the National Republican Congressional Committee told me this week that of the 30 unique digital ad campaigns that the group has run this cycle, “probably 28 of them” dealt with cost increases for goods and services; an astounding 93 percent.

But Republicans are also getting a lot of help with messaging. So much help, in fact, that fully 37% of register voters believe the U.S. has had a net loss of jobs over the past year, according to a February survey from the progressive consortium Navigator Research. That delusional outlook includes 47% of Republicans and 43% of Independents. And overall, only 28% of respondents correctly said the U.S. had netted positive jobs gains over the past year.

As Press Run founder and editor Eric Boehlert pointed out, mainstream media appears to be fully invested in convincing Americans that Biden’s historic job gains are actually bad news for the country. Here’s a sampling of headlines following another strong jobs report last week:

• “America’s Job Market Is On Fire. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Feel Like It” (CNN)

• “Booming Job Growth Is a Double-Edged Sword For Joe Biden” (CNN)

• “Why a Great Jobs Report Can’t Save Joe Biden” (CNN)

• “Unemployment Hits Pandemic Low in March, But Uncertainty Looms Ahead” (Washington Post)

• “Biden Gets a Strong Jobs Report, But a Sour Mood Still Prevails” (Washington Post)

So hey, tell a friend, tell a coworker, tell a neighbor that a big reason inflation is high is because Joe Biden has created the hottest jobs market in nearly a century. The alternative at this point would be rising prices due to pandemic supply chain issues and the War in Ukraine alongside a sagging jobs market.