Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Discusses the August Jobs Report and Economic Growth - September 1, 2023 | Factba.se

Joe Biden

00:00:00 - 00:00:05 ()

Good afternoon, everyone.

Joe Biden

00:00:05 - 00:00:17 ()

As we head into Labor Day, we ought to take a step back and take note of the fact that America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history -- in the history of our country.

Joe Biden

00:00:17 - 00:00:31 ()

And it wasn't that long ago that America was losing jobs. In fact, my predecessor was the -- one of only two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered.

Joe Biden

00:00:31 - 00:01:00 ()

Look -- look at where we are now. Just this morning, we learned that the economy created 190,000 jobs last month. All told, we've added 13.5 million jobs since I took office -- around 800,000 of them manufacturing jobs. We created more jobs in two years than any president ever created in a four-year -- single four-year term. We did it in two years.

Joe Biden

00:01:00 - 00:01:15 ()

What's more, when I took office, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that it would not get below 4 percent until the end of 2025.

Joe Biden

00:01:15 - 00:01:26 ()

Now, unemployment -- the unemployment rate has been below [DEL: 14 :DEL] [4] percent for the last 19 months, the longest stretch in over 50 years.

Joe Biden

00:01:26 - 00:01:33 ()

We've recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic. And we've added [DEL: a :DEL] [4] million more new jobs.

Joe Biden

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More than 700,000 people joined the labor force last month, which means the highest share of working-age Americans are in the workforce now than at any time in the past 20 years.

Joe Biden

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People are coming off the sidelines, getting back to their workplaces.

Joe Biden

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Job satisfaction is higher than it's been in 36 years.

Joe Biden

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We've been -- we've seen record lows in unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic workers, and veterans, and workers without high-school diplomas -- and the lowest unemployment rate in 70 years for America's women.

Joe Biden

00:02:13 - 00:02:25 ()

At the same time, inflation continues to fall. It's now around 3 percent, about one-third of what it was one year ago.

Joe Biden

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In fact, we learned yesterday that over the past thr- -- over the past three months, inflation will close -- it was close to what it was before -- before the pandemic.

Joe Biden

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And incomes are higher now than they were before the pandemic, while pay for low-wage workers has grown at the fastest pace for low-wage workers in two decades.

Joe Biden

00:02:49 - 00:03:05 ()

Remember, some experts said to get inflation under control we needed higher unemployment and lower wages. But I've never thought that was the problem: too many people having a job or that working people were making too much money.

Joe Biden

00:03:05 - 00:03:16 ()

And now, months -- after months and months of bringing inflation down, while at the same time adding jobs and growing wages, it matters. And it's no accident.

Joe Biden

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I came to office determined to build the economy in a different way: from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.

Joe Biden

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To move away from trickle-down economics and instead focus on the middle class. Because when the middle class does well -- and this is not hyperbole -- when the middle class does well, everyone does well. Everyone does well. The wealthy do very well, the poor have a shot, and the middle class can make a living.

Joe Biden

00:03:43 - 00:03:56 ()

The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal -- you've heard me say it before -- started calling my plan "Bidenomics." It's about investing in America and investing in Americans. It's working.

Joe Biden

00:03:56 - 00:04:05 ()

A key pillar of Bidenomics is empowering and educating workers, who are the backbone of this country.

Joe Biden

00:04:05 - 00:04:16 ()

I want to mention a few actions my administration took this week to support workers by raising workers' pay and helping more workers get good-paying union jobs.

Joe Biden

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First, we proposed a new rule to extend overtime pay from -- for up to 3.6 million workers across the country -- additional 3.6 million.

Joe Biden

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And here's why that matters: Until now, salaried workers who were not paid by the hour were often not guaranteed overtime pay unless they made less than [DEL: $36,568 :DEL] [$35,568] a year. That was the threshold.

Joe Biden

00:04:50 - 00:05:02 ()

If you were a fast-food manager or made even one dollar more in salary, you were not guaranteed overtime pay even if you worked an additional 40-hour week.

Joe Biden

00:05:02 - 00:05:11 ()

The new rules we proposed this year -- this week raised that threshold to $55,000 a year.

Joe Biden

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That means a mom in North Carolina who makes $37,500 a year as an executive assistant and sometimes works a 60-hour workweek could now be guaranteed time-and-a-half whenever she works over 40 hours in that week. Plus, moving forward, that salary threshold automatically will update every three years so that it stays up to date with wage growth and purchasing power. What would make it easier for workers to earn overtime -- in the future it would.

Joe Biden

00:05:45 - 00:06:01 ()

The automatic update was something we did in the Obama-Biden administration. My predecessor scrapped it. We've worked to bring it back, and it will make a big difference for a lot of American families.

Joe Biden

00:06:01 - 00:06:18 ()

Next, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act -- which, I might add, not a single member of the other party voted for -- we're making the most significant investment in clean energy and combatting the existential threat of climate change that's ever been made anywhere in the world.

Joe Biden

00:06:18 - 00:06:33 ()

According to outside experts, the Inflation Reduction Act is projected to create more than 1.5 million jobs over the next decade, which I said when I was writing the legislation.

Joe Biden

00:06:33 - 00:06:49 ()

This week, the Department of the Treasury and the IRS announced guidance on new tax incentives for companies that invest in clean energy, like building wil- -- wind turbines and installing solar power.

Joe Biden

00:06:49 - 00:07:11 ()

In the previous administration, companies got a tax cut and they could go wherever they wanted to, including overseas, and hire whoever they wanted in order to get that tax cut. But on my watch, we used tax cuts for companies to stay in America and create American jobs in America.

Joe Biden

00:07:11 - 00:07:27 ()

We're providing additional tax incentives for companies to pay their workers prevailing wages -- wages you can raise a family on. And if you get -- and if they hire registered apprentices, like those trained and sponsored by unions, that's what happens.

Joe Biden

00:07:27 - 00:07:34 ()

For some clean energy projects, that will still be worth millions of dollars.

Joe Biden

00:07:34 - 00:07:39 ()

This is a major incentive to pay prevailing wage and hire union workers.

Joe Biden

00:07:39 - 00:07:46 ()

It's good for workers. It's good for the environment. And as companies are beginning to figure out, it's good for a company's bottom line as well.

Joe Biden

00:07:46 - 00:07:55 ()

Plus, many automobile -- auto companies significantly ramped up their investments in electric vehicles.

Joe Biden

00:07:55 - 00:08:24 ()

My administration announced -- has announced more than $15 billion in funding to help automakers convert existing auto plants while retraining existing workers at at good wages, giving them a first crack at the new and different jobs for electric vehicle com- -- for its -- the combustion engine -- bolstering the domestic supply chains and ensuring that auto manufacturing jobs remain good-paying jobs, including union jobs.

Joe Biden

00:08:24 - 00:08:36 ()

The auto industry has long been a pathway to the middle class for -- and had provided good-paying jobs. I'm not going to let that change on my watch if I can help it.

Joe Biden

00:08:36 - 00:09:08 ()

And if anyone wonders whether unions really make a difference, I urge them to take a look at the new report from the Treasury Department. It's the most comprehensive look ever at the impact unions have on our economy. And it concludes definitively that unions raise workers' incomes, increase homeownership, increase retirement savings, increase access to critical benefits like sick leave and childcare, and reduce inequality -- all of which strengthen the American economy.

Joe Biden

00:09:08 - 00:09:25 ()

Plus, even workers who aren't in unions, even workers who have been laid off see benefits from unions when they're strong, because unions raise standards across the workforce and industries, pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone.

Joe Biden

00:09:25 - 00:09:35 ()

You've heard me say many times: Wall Street didn't build America; the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.

Joe Biden

00:09:35 - 00:10:07 ()

Let me close with this. We've faced some pretty tough times in recent years. A pandemic that took more than a million of our friends and neighbors. A million fewer people sitting at our dining room or kitchen tables. People we raised and loved. People we grew up with. Gone. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It wasn't that long ago that 20 million Americans were out of work.

Joe Biden

00:10:07 - 00:10:15 ()

But the American people didn't give up. They never give up. They've never given up.

Joe Biden

00:10:15 - 00:10:27 ()

And today, we have the strongest economy in the world, the lowest inflation rate among the major economies, 13.5 million new jobs.

Joe Biden

00:10:27 - 00:10:49 ()

You heard me say it before and I'm going to keep saying it: My dad said, "A job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, 'Honey, it's going to be okay,' and mean it." That dignity is coming back to places all across the country.

Joe Biden

00:10:49 - 00:11:13 ()

While I'm proud of the historic legislation my administration has passed and the policies we've enacted, the real heroes in this story are the American people -- average Americans. They're the ones getting up every day, putting their heads down, and going out that door and going to work. They're the ones starting new businesses, taking the chances, hiring workers, and fulfilling their dreams.

Joe Biden

00:11:13 - 00:11:45 ()

Three weeks ago, at a clean energy factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I met an IBEW electrician who builds and repairs America's growing fleet of wind turbine engines. He said, and I quote, "In America, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible." In America, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible. That's what my father's generation believed. That's what these folks believe, too.

Joe Biden

00:11:45 - 00:11:52 ()

Every day across this country, ordinary people get up and do extraordinary things.

Joe Biden

00:11:52 - 00:12:07 ()

And thanks to them, we're going to continue to grow our economy from the middle out and the bottom up with good-paying jobs, more breathing room for families, and American workers building the industries of the future.

Joe Biden

00:12:07 - 00:12:19 ()

They remind us of who we are. I'm going to keep saying this: We're the United States of America. There is simply nothing beyond our capacity when we set our mind to it and do it together.

Joe Biden

00:12:19 - 00:12:24 ()

Have a good Labor Day weekend. And God bless you all. May God protect our troops.

Note

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Question

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Are you going to meet with Governor DeSantis tomorrow?

Joe Biden

00:12:28 - 00:12:30 ()