- The United States added more jobs in 2021 than any year in history.
- Most Americans, however, think that the US either lost jobs or gained the usual amount.
- President Biden clocked the second lowest approval rating of any president on record this week.
The United States added more jobs in 2021 than any year in history, but more than two-thirds of Americans don't know that. In fact, many think the country lost jobs.
That's according to a new survey of 1,395 registered voters conducted last month by Navigator, a political research firm. The researchers found that although the numbers differ across racial groups and political parties, a majority of Americans in each category think that the US either experienced more job losses last year, or only the same level of growth as usual.
That perception of the economy is not the messaging that the Biden administration wants, especially given that President Biden clocked the second lowest approval rating of any president on record this week, at about 41%, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The survey as a whole suggested that Biden's administration might have problems conveying their plans across the board. Biden's Build Back Better (BBB) plan was killed in Congress last month, for instance, but nearly a quarter of Americans support BBB despite disapproving of Biden on the economy.
"When including the $1.75 trillion price tag, as well as universal pre-K, Medicare covering hearing, and lower drug prices, 60% support, including 86% of Democrats and 50% of independents," the researchers wrote. "Dropping the price tag and universal pre-K, while adding in clean energy, drives support up to 66%, including 89% of Democrats, 59% of independents, and 42% of Republicans."
The US added a record number of jobs, but Americans haven't noticed
Last year, the US gained 6.4 million new jobs. That's the biggest single-year gain on record and, on a percentage basis, the best year for job growth since 1978.
The unemployment rate experienced a strong recovery too. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December that the benchmark fell more than expected to 3.9%, placing it close to the historic lows seen right before the pandemic. That's down from the 6.7% unemployment rate from the start of 2021, making the one-year decline the largest in data going back to 1949.
And hiring recovery was better than expected in the first few months of 2022: the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that hiring rebounded in January despite the US sitting in the peak of the Omicron wave.
Which makes some of the findings from the Navigator survey perplexing: 35% of overall respondents said that the US experienced more job losses than usual over the last 12 months, with 33% estimating that it experienced the same level of growth, and only 19% correctly assessing that the country saw more job growth.
Democrats were the group with the largest percentage that said the country saw more job growth last year — but it was less than a third that did, at 31%. Only 9% of Republicans correctly assessed that the country gained more jobs.
There are at least a few possible explanations for why Americans are so out of step with the actual job growth rate: for instance, they spent nearly a year resigning in massive numbers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the country added 467,000 nonfarm payrolls in January, far exceeding economists' estimates of only 150,000 payrolls. But that's still after nine months of American quitting at record or near-record rates, over 38 million for all of 2021.
And many more people, especially young people, say they plan to quit this year.