After 45 consecutive months of record-setting, powerhouse job creation numbers (January 2021 through September 2024), only one month (October) came in as a disappointment. After that one weak month, November’s Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics picked right back up where it left off at the end of September – in fact, even better: 227,000 jobs created, the third best monthly performance all year. Additionally, the numbers for October and September were revised strongly upward, yielding a net additional gain of slightly more than 100,000 jobs.
The Greatest Job Market Ever
By the time December is over – and with it, the whole year including Joe Biden’s presidency and time in office – this administration will have earned the distinction of creating more jobs than any other except Bill Clinton’s in the roaring nineties– and it took Clinton two terms to do it. The eight Clinton years created 23 million jobs. Biden, in just four years, gave us 17 million. And all other numbers are equally string: open jobs, hires rate, and voluntary quits rates remain brisk while layoffs and unemployment rates stay low. It is a beautifully harmonious market.
A Job Market In Transition?
No matter what happens in December – and prospects are looking good – this is the job market President-elect Trump will inherit from President Biden. What he opts to do with it remains to be seen, but this much is certain: it didn’t just happen; it was created, most prominently by the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and many more job-producing actions.
President-elect Trump has vowed to dismantle much of this but has said nothing about what he intends to do instead. So, let’s speculate. There are really three tacks he can take: stay the course, change course, or do nothing. Whether he stays or changes course, he will at least be doing something, and – who knows? – maybe he’s got better ideas. But as they say, when comes time to make decisions, the best thing you can do is make a good decision, the next best thing you can do is make a bad decision, and the worst thing you can do is make no decision at all
Right now, it remains to be seen.