Speaking to supporters in South Carolina on Friday, Joe Biden boasted that his administration had created 2.2 million jobs in 2024 and presided over the strongest labor market in half a century.
According to the Daily Caller, Biden appeared at an event marking his 2020 Democratic primary victory in the state and used the occasion to tout his economic record. He told the audience, Were the lowest average unemployment rate in 50 years. In fact, in just my last year as President of the United States in 2024, we created just the last year 2.2 million additional jobs. You know how many jobs Trumps created in his first year as president? 185,000 jobs total, Biden told the crowd.
Biden went further, asserting that President Donald Trumps record was historically poor. Thats it. Of course, it shouldnt be a surprise. Trumps the only president other than Herbert Hoover who had fewer jobs when he left office than when he came into office. Thats the fact.
Yet the official data Biden invoked do not fully support his narrative, and subsequent revisions have sharply undercut his talking point. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) initially reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 2.2 million in 2024, but later benchmark revisions tied to unemployment insurance tax records showed the figures were overstated, revising the March 2025 level down by 862,000 and adjusting data back to April 2024.
Those revisions, highlighted by outlets such as Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, showed that job growth over the 12 months ending in March 2025 had been significantly overcounted and that 2024 employment gains were far weaker than the White House originally claimed. Contrary to Bidens assertion, the BLS initially reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 584,000 in 2025 before benchmark revisions later reduced that figure to 181,000.
Bidens comparison with President Trump also glossed over basic calendar realities that matter for honest analysis. A calendar-year total for 2025 runs from January through December, while a presidents first 12 months in office span from inauguration into the following year, making Bidens 185,000 jobs line a misleading political attack rather than a fair accounting of Trumps record.
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