WASHINGTON, D.C. – Out of Washington, the job report was below expectations, but that being said, President Joe Biden touted that the unemployment rate did drop.
The labor’s department for November showed a slow down in job growth, the weakest monthly gain in nearly a year as U.S. employers added 210,000 jobs.
“(That’s) a total of 6 million jobs in the first 10 months of the president’s administration – that is a record for a new president,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary.
Stocks rose in early trading Friday as President Joe Biden focused on the unemployment rate, which fell to 4.2 percent.
“We’re looking at the sharpest one year decline in unemployment ever,” Biden said.
The jobs report reflects before the Omicron variant was detected in the United States as several states from California to New York report new cases.
“We suspect they’ll be more cases emerging,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The White House announced a new plan this week to combat COVID during winter. First, they will make at home rapid tests free. They will also extend the mask requirement on public transit through mid March. And institute more testing protocols for international travelers.
“We have 90,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day and that about 99.9 percent continue to be Delta. We know for every variant that we have it’s better to be vaccinated than unvaccinated,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC.
“Key actions we are going to take this winter to fight this virus to protect one another,” Biden said.
Nebraska is now the six state to confirm the Omicron variant as new research indicates it spreads faster than the Delta variant but at this point the CDC says the Delta variant poses a greater threat to the nation.