According to recent reports from the payroll company ADP, U.S. businesses added only 152,000 jobs last month, the smallest increase of the year. This figure missed economist estimates of 175,000, leading experts to suggest parts of the economy are slowing as we move into the second half of the year.
ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson, explained that while the labor market is strong, there are signs of weakness within metrics about consumers and producers. “Job gains and pay growth are slowing going into the second half of the year,” said Richardson. “The labor market is solid, but we’re monitoring notable pockets of weakness tied to both producers and consumers.”
While some data indicates that the economy has been relatively strong throughout the Biden administration in areas such as the labor market. Furthermore, the U.S. economy avoided a recession, where 85 percent of economists predicted one in 2023.
While these indicators may signal strength, there are other signs of weaknesses where persistent inflation continues to impact Americans as wages have not kept up with prices. As a result, there is a pervasive economic pessimism the Biden campaign is battling ahead of the election.
Earlier this year, The American Tribune reported on research surrounding the opinions of undecided swing state voters, where a panel of 8 unanimously agreed that former President Donald Trump’s policies were better for the economy than Joe Biden’s.
Mark Halperin, one of the research organizers, explained the project’s goal, stating, “Through a unique combination of synchronized polling and focus groups, viewers will meet, learn about, and hear from fellow citizens in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, and watch as they grapple with indecision about whom to support for president—or whether to vote at all.”
Nathan, a voter in Wisconsin, said, “I think he’s been absolutely disastrous for the economy.” Following Nathan’s opinion on Biden’s economy others appeared to nod in agreement that they shared his opinion. “Raise your hand if you think President Trump’s policies on the economy would be better for your family, personally,” Halperin asked the group, to which every single person raised their hand.
“It was one of those focus group ‘a-ha’ moments when I asked the participants, some of whom voted for Joe Biden in 2020, which of the candidates’ economic policies would be better for their family. All eight decisively said ‘Trump’ — and some seemed to laugh at the notion that I would even ask the question,” Halperin explained to Fox News.
The Biden campaign has undeniably identified the economy as a major pain point that will be a determining factor in the election later this year. Subsequently, left-leaning media outlets have begun to suggest that Americans are too “confused” to understand that the economy is actually doing quite well.
MSNBC recently ran a segment that seemingly suggested that because a handful of fast food restaurants and retailers were cutting prices on several items, it was an indication of economic strength. Austan Goolsbee, a former Obama economic official, said, “Good, but you’ve had you’ve had inflation that got way too high in the US and in other countries around the world. Incomes didn’t keep up with that. Now inflation slowed in 2023 actually quite a lot inflation came down almost as much as it’s ever come down.”
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