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The economy is continuing to recover strongly from the Coronavirus pandemic, with 638,000 jobs added in October according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the April pandemic-low, 12.1 million jobs have been recovered as businesses continue to reopen and Americans continue getting back to work. Over half of the jobs lost to the Coronavirus pandemic have now been recovered, a sign that the pro-growth policies enacted by Republicans and President Trump have been successful. 

The unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent, with the private sector adding 906,000 jobs in total. This outpaced overall employment gains due to 268,000 government jobs being lost. 

Despite the pandemic, this is a lower unemployment rate during the entirety of the Obama-Biden first term. At the same time in 2012, the Obama-Biden unemployment rate was 7.9 percent. 

The unemployment rate fell across the board for key demographics, falling to 10.8 percent for blacks, 7.6 percent for Asians, 8.8 percent for Hispanics, and 6.5 percent for women. Black employment increased by 433,000 alone, the second single largest increase on record. 

The October jobs numbers again beat industry expectations – economists surveyed by the Dow Jones projected a gain of 530,000 and an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent.

These strong jobs numbers come on the heels of other economic good news – the US economy grew by 7.4 percent in the third quarter of 2020, or 33.1 percent on an annualized basis – the fastest pace of GDP growth ever recorded.

The labor force participation rate increased 0.3 percent to 61.7 percent, and the number of Americans on temporary layoff fell by 1.4 million to 3.2 million. This measure is down significantly from a high of 18.1 million in April. 

These jobs gains came in some of the hardest-hit sectors of the economy, including 271,000 jobs added in the hospitality industry and 208,000 jobs added in professional and business services. Construction also added 84,000 jobs in October. 

While more work remains to be done, these strong economic indicators show that the Republican pro-growth agenda of tax cuts and regulatory relief is the way to recover from the pandemic. The fundamentals of the economy remain strong, and lawmakers should continue to enact pro-growth policies that will help the economy continue to recover. 

In stark contrast, Joe Biden wants to raise taxes on the American people by over $4 trillion and repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “on day one.”  In just six months, the economy has recovered 54 percent of jobs lost to the pandemic. It took the Obama-Biden administration 31 months to recover the same share of jobs lost during the 2008-2009 recession.  

As the U.S. economy turns the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden’s tax hikes will thwart our recovery and decimate our economy.