What the September jobs report means for the economy
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — President Joe Biden is celebrating another month of robust job gains, with 336,000 added to the economy in September.
"It's no accident. This is Bidenomics at work," the president said Friday.
He said the figure, which exceeded expectations, is a positive signal.
"We have the highest share of working-age Americans in the workforce in 20 years," he said.
Some economists say the outlook is not that simple.
"It's not entirely smooth sailing or full steam ahead for the economy," Mark Hamrick, a senior analyst for financial services company Bankrate, said. "We're still talking about the risk of a government shutdown in mid-November. We have global tensions. ... We have an autoworker strike and we have high interest rates that make the cost and availability of borrowing more tenuous."
The Federal Reserve consistently raised interest rates for more than a year to fight inflation. Its next steps are less certain, Hamrick said.
While the inflation rate is now less than half the peak it hit last June, recent polls show most Americans don't feel good about the economy or how Biden is handling it. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he's not surprised.
"After a tough time, it takes a while for optimism to come back and we went through about as tough a three years as you can imagine with COVID," he said.
He believes that once new federal investments take hold, the mood will shift.
"We just have to keep promoting the good things that are happening, like today's jobs report," Kaine said.