On Thursday, we received new data on unemployment insurance claims and local unemployment rates that demonstrate how the United States is experiencing an almost unprecedented and broad based labor market recovery. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan and President Biden’s robust vaccination strategy:
- Unemployment rates are lower in 99 percent of metropolitan areas compared to this time last year. The unemployment rate is now below 3.0 percent in more than 1 in 4 metro areas nationwide.
- New unemployment claims are now at a level not seen since March 7, 2020 and last week’s claims were revised down to their lowest level since 1969. In addition, the four-week average of unemployment claims fell to their lowest level since the pandemic began – just 225,500. Initial unemployment claims are now down more than 70 percent since President Biden took office, and total claims filed each week are now down by around 16 million over that same period.
Today’s data add to a growing body of recent evidence of America’s historic labor market recovery. Since President Biden took office, the economy has added 5.6 million jobs – more jobs than in the first nine months of any other President in history. The unemployment rate has also fallen to 4.6 percent two full years earlier than experts predicted was possible. And, a record-high 74 percent of Americans now say it is a good time to find a quality job, up from just 27 percent when President Biden took office. President Biden’s economic plan is working.
