Vice President Biden Predicts Massive Job Growth in Coming Months
EmailABC News’ Matt Jaffe and Karen Travers report:
Usually the Obama administration downplays expectations for job growth, but apparently Vice President Joe Biden didn’t get the memo – or he did, but just blew it off.
“Some time in the next couple of months we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month,” Biden said at a fundraiser today in Pittsburgh.
Next month, Biden predicted, the nation’s employers will add between 100,000 to 200,000 jobs to their payrolls.
If employers were to increase their payrolls by half a million jobs at some point in the next few months, that would mark a massive turnaround for a country that was hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs a month just one year ago. But with the big boost expected from the government’s 2010 census, on top of an improving employment picture as evidenced by the 162,000 jobs created in March, such future job growth is a distinct possibility, analysts say.
“Given what the census did ten years ago we should get at least 100,000 additional census jobs in April and at least 300,000 census jobs in May,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.com. “Of course, those temporary jobs go away, so there will be a very significant drag on employment in the summer. June, July, August, September will see much weaker job numbers.”
The administration’s own forecast projects that the labor market will add about 100,000 jobs a month for the rest of the year, then around 200,000 jobs a month next year, and 250,000 jobs a month in 2012.
Biden noted today that in the past he “got in trouble” for making predictions about job creation, but clearly that did not stop him from delivering his bold new projections.
“We caught a lot of bad breaks on the way down,” Biden said. “We’re going to catch a few good breaks because of good planning on the way up.”
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Public jobs or private jobs Mr. Biden??
Posted by: obieone40 | April 23, 2010, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
I’d be willing to make that projection. Job growth follows the end of a recession. Despite what Republicans are relentlessly preaching, America hasn’t been destroyed. We are still the most vibrant and powerful economy on Earth. I am more than willing to bet on it any day.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 6:06 pm 6:06 pm
Public jobs or private jobs Mr. Biden??
obieone40 | Apr 23, 2010 5:56:12 PM
I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that as the stimulus winds down tens of thousands of teachers, police and firemen will be fired and stop freeloading on your tax dollars.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
We are still the most vibrant and powerful economy on Earth.
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Actually many have said China is pushing/has pushed past us.
Also you don’t get questioned about your triple A rating and borrow beyond your means if your the most powerful economy on earth.
Along with the public private question is the temp/permanent question.
Posted by: GO | April 23, 2010, 6:10 pm 6:10 pm
I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that as the stimulus winds down tens of thousands of teachers, police and firemen will be fired and stop freeloading on your tax dollars.
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No you’ve missed the point if you increase public jobs while you loose private then even more of those you reference will loose their jobs because you can’t pay them without someone to tax. If private jobs dry up then how do you pay for the public ones which I don’t think are freeloading (well some are but they are mostly in Congress).
Posted by: obieone40 | April 23, 2010, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
No you’ve missed the point if you increase public jobs while you loose private then even more of those you reference will loose their jobs because you can’t pay them without someone to tax.
obieone40 | Apr 23, 2010 6:21:07 PM
The entire point of a stimulus is to prevent the loss of private jobs. If the government buys a car built by a private company, are all those jobs now public jobs?
You’re nibbling around the edges of a real point, the issue of public funding bidding up the cost of materials and labor for a resurgent private industry, but with a retrospective knowledge of the depth of this recession (far deeper than predicted when the stimulus was put together) that is no longer a concern.
This stimulus was a huge chunk of tax breaks (hundreds of billions left in the hands of private citizens and companies), one time assistance (such as unemployment insurance extensions), and public works projects (although not enough to even catch up on deferred infrastructure maintenance). It was not, is not, and never was a huge FDR style direct-hire of people by the government to fill holes.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 6:30 pm 6:30 pm
I feel an upswing coming soon, if the number of small stores opening is any indication.
Still, we need to increase manufacturing jobs here, as their pay is markedly more than a retail/service clerk position.
Buy American when you can people! The job you save may be indirectly your own.
Posted by: Lydia | April 23, 2010, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
That teacher, firemen, policemen line is such an old and tired red herring.
It’s the children, their dying, we must pay more taxes to save the children. Oh the humanity!
Can’t wait to see it Mr. Biden. And how are we counting these new jobs. Will it be the same way we “counted” the saved and created jobs so far. Will it include changing your own unemployment baseline like the CEA just did in its latest report?
Posted by: Aaron | April 23, 2010, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
JHW – Obama just came out and said the US is NOT going to be where we used to be as the most powerful country. He has also said we are not exceptional, we are just another country. So which one is it?
I vote for EXCEPTIONAL! We’re still the greatest force of good in the world and we are the straw that stirs the world economy’s drink, but if we keep basing our economic policies on unicorns, fairy tales, “social justice”, and the public employee unions, we’ll quickly end up an empty suit like the EU.
Posted by: Aaron | April 23, 2010, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
JHW – Obama just came out and said the US is NOT going to be where we used to be as the most powerful country. He has also said we are not exceptional, we are just another country.
Aaron | Apr 23, 2010 6:48:13 PM
You said that. Please provide the ACTUAL QUOTE, not your distorted paraphrase.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 7:04 pm 7:04 pm
It’s the children, their dying, we must pay more taxes to save the children. Oh the humanity!
Aaron | Apr 23, 2010 6:45:21 PM
So are you one of the horribly overtaxed 47% groaning under the burden of 0% federal income tax? Taxes by every measure are at their lowest in half a century, their lowest in 90 years by most measures.
Republicans: They love American, they just don’t think it’s worth paying anything for.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 7:06 pm 7:06 pm
JHW: you have to make over $50,000 first so this doesn’t even affect you. Maybe if you had to pay the taxes for the 50% that don’t like yourself you might feel some resentment.
Posted by: David | April 23, 2010, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
jhw yes we can live with the teachers and government jobs being eliminated. Maybe they will break the union that keeps costing us billions of dollars. Why does a union gardner make $70,000 a year with health care benefits compared to $35,000 for a non union gardner that seems insane to me.
Posted by: Lester | April 23, 2010, 7:17 pm 7:17 pm
I believe Mr. Biden is counting these part time and temporary positions with the Census Bureau counters. This is not job growth. All I see is alot of commercial business signs trying to rent space because of all the businesses going out of business. I do live in a state that has over 12% unemployment and some school teachers had the audacity to go on strike because they would not accept a 10% paycut. I hope they hire the substitute teachers full time. I had to take a pay cut yet these arrogant teachers left the children hanging.
Posted by: Tammy | April 23, 2010, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
I believe Mr. Biden is counting these part time and temporary positions with the Census Bureau counters.
Tammy | Apr 23, 2010 7:24:40 PM
Biden isn’t counting anything, he’s making off the cuff comments with no solid backing behind them. The Census positions are only about 60,000 people, and they’ve already shown up in the jobs numbers.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
JHW: you have to make over $50,000 first so this doesn’t even affect you. Maybe if you had to pay the taxes for the 50% that don’t like yourself you might feel some resentment.
David | Apr 23, 2010 7:12:11 PM
My wife and I were more than happy to pay my share to run the best government in the world, $30,541 (effective tax rate of 15.05% – 5% less than last year with the Obama tax breaks – marginal rate of 28%). When the AMT patch update came out in Feb for the tax software I use, I picked up a $6k refund. Which will go nicely towards some favored charities and perhaps some new tires for the Porsche (an old 944 turbo that gets astonishingly good mileage by dint of being tiny).
You see, like many of the liberal elite, limousine liberals, or bleeding hearts like Warren Buffet, I feel incredibly blessed to live in this country and am willing to support the government created by the Founding Fathers. Not perfect by any means, but the best out there.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 23, 2010, 8:23 pm 8:23 pm
They couldn’t even predict correctly that unemployment wouldn’t rise above 8%, how can anyone believe them on this?
Posted by: EPU | April 24, 2010, 3:37 am 3:37 am
Eventually the US will come out of this recession without Gov help, just like its done in the past. Obama and Biden just want to make sure that THEY get the credit for it! Nothing new here!!
Posted by: morphy | April 24, 2010, 11:49 am 11:49 am
Biden is a a real piece of work. He reminds me of a ventriloquist doll who keeps saying the wrong thing to get a laugh. What is laughable is the free ride he gets from the press. With all the talk of Palin not being qualified to be a “heartbeat away” from the presidency, it amazes me how the press is so happy with the Laurel & Hardy act we have in there now. NEITHER one of the bozos has actually run anything in their lives, how on earth can we expect them to effectively run this country? I, for one, would take Palin over either or both of them in a HEARTBEAT!
Posted by: John | April 24, 2010, 11:50 am 11:50 am
Joe Biden is a draft-dodging mediocrity who will say the most ignorant things at the most inappropriate times and places. I have personal knowledge of him speaking off-the-cuff about classified information to a stranger while waiting to board an airplane.The stranger lived in Delaware and recognized him-that was the extent of their relationship.What people don’t know(and the press will not report) is the fact that he has had brain surgery for a cerebral aneurysm -his inappropriate comments probably reflect those post-operative changes,eg. “this is a B-F-D,three letter word J-O-B-S,stand up so everyone can see you”etc.He was behind efforts to allow shady business practices in Delaware-why do you think so many credit card companies are located in Delaware? Why are so many major corporation bankruptcies litigated in Delaware?Joe Biden.
Posted by: Nephron | April 24, 2010, 12:46 pm 12:46 pm
Boy, the blood sure does tell in the Biden family. I knew his father was a car salesman, but I had no idea his brother was Joe Isuzu.
Posted by: OttoDog | April 24, 2010, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
The article pointed out that conceivably 300,000 census jobs could be created in May. If you add another 100,000 or so Biden could be technically right that we will see a May number around 400,00 to 500,000. However, what is being left out in this discussion is NET JOBS. Jobs have been created for months now, but jobs have also been lost. It is important to note what sort of jobs are being created. Are they full-time, and at what level of pay? It matters because we must create TAX PAYING JOBS. It is better to have the dish washer working, rather than unemployed, but the dish washer won’t make enough to pay federal taxes. WE NEED FEDERAL TAXES.
BTW, somebody said this morning that a union government worker could conceivably pay 100,000 into a pension plan, but actually get benefits of around 3 million. Keep in mind they retire much earlier than the private sector and so they live off those pensions much longer. Also keep in mind that those government pensions are bankrupting many states.
Posted by: Susan | April 24, 2010, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
They couldn’t even predict correctly that unemployment wouldn’t rise above 8%, how can anyone believe them on this?
Posted by: EPU | Apr 24, 2010 3:37:19 AM
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Under the Republican Reagan, unemployment was above 10% for ten straight months, and above 9% for 19 straight months. The Democrats have done far better.
Quit lying about what was said.
Posted by: tierra | April 24, 2010, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
And under FDR unemployment was greater than 20% for years.What does that have to do with today?-NOTHING.The fact is that this administration’s unemployment predictions have been inaccurate; by historical standards the policies that they have adopted almost certainly have contributed to the current unemployment rate-had they done nothing the unemployment rate would be declining at this point.EPU wasn’t lying,but stating a fact.What riding,tierra?
Posted by: Nephron | April 24, 2010, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm