Following today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing 209,000 jobs added in June as the national unemployment rate ticked down to 3.6 percent, Fox & Friends chose to downplay President Joe Biden’s successful economic record, which includes the creation of more than 13 million new jobs since taking office.
Fox & Friends pushes dishonest GOP talking points to dismiss Biden's record job creation
Fox Business host Brian Brenberg complains 13 million new jobs under Biden ought to be 1-2 million higher
Written by Zachary Pleat
Published
During the segment, Fox Business host Brian Brenberg made a number of misleading statements to negatively spin the state of the economy.
First, he falsely claimed “everyone coming into this number thought we’re going to have a big jobs number,” in response to yesterday’s unrelated monthly data release from the private payroll firm ADP. In fact, the positive job creation in June of 209,000 was fairly close to the expected 225,000 jobs that Fox News itself noted, a different consensus estimate from Dow Jones' prediction of 240,000 new jobs. He then ominously claimed that the negative revision to prior monthly reports has been “happening a lot lately,” when in reality the previous monthly jobs report for May contained positive revisions for both March and April.
Brenberg also suggested that the economy was still recovering jobs lost during the economic collapse stemming from former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brenberg then complained that the 13 million jobs created during the Biden administration was “a million to 2 million” lower than it should be and that too many people aren’t “participating in the economy.” Fox host Kayleigh McEnany added, “There’s a difference between a job recovered … and one created,” and, “Another fact … is 8 in 10 of the highest job-creating states post-pandemic are run by Republican governors.”
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Citation
From the July 7, 2023, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN BRENBERG (FOX BUSINESS HOST): I'm surprised by this. Everyone coming into this number thought we're going to have a big jobs number because we saw a big one from ADP earlier in the week. It came in low, but even more than that, previous months get revised down. That's been happening a lot lately, by the way. So you put that together, now this is still a strong number relative to where people thought we'd be at this point, but it's clearly trending down. So you are seeing some signs of cooling in the labor market.
And that's important, because the president's going to get out today and tout his 12 million, 13 million jobs. I got to tell you, that's not telling the whole story right now. A lot is filling in from the pandemic. The real job gains have been much more modest than that. In fact, by some measures, we're still a million to 2 million jobs below where we should be right now, because so many people are sitting on the sidelines, they're not participating in the economy.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY (FOX HOST): And that's just it. There's a difference between a job recovered after a pandemic and one created. Another fact I imagine we won't hear from President Biden is 8 in 10 of the highest job-creating states post-pandemic are run by Republican governors.
These claims diminishing the economic recovery under Biden and instead praising Republican governors echoed a Republican National Committee talking point. But these partisan criticisms are misleading in numerous ways. Biden’s record job creation dates back to his first year in office, with about three times as many jobs created as Trump in the same time period. And as far as GOP-led states dominating job creation, Biden’s major economic policies — which Republicans have mostly voted against — are creating jobs in red states, with Republican lawmakers taking undeserved credit for them. Reporting from The Washington Post explained that the more rapid hiring in red states is mostly due to constant job-hopping rather than consistent job growth, and Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Bernstein pointed out that the repeated credit-taking by Republicans for Biden’s policies just proves the value of Biden’s accomplishments.
Additionally, contrary to Fox’s complaints about the lack of labor force participation, the employment rate for working-age Americans is the highest it has been in over 22 years, and the economy has added nearly 4 million jobs beyond the pre-pandemic peak.