August Jobs Report Means Both Men and Women Have Now Fully Regained Jobs Lost During Pandemic

     Earlier this summer, America fully regained all the jobs that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the problems stemming from the labor shortage have yet to subside, I see that for the possibilities it presents in the long term over the challenges it presents in the short term. For example, while employment has been fully restored nationwide, only 20 states have fully restored employment to what it was before the pandemic struck. Each of these 20 states have created jobs to the tunes of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands above what they were in February 2020, which has now more than balanced out the impact of jobs yet to be regained in the other 30 states.

     Another example of this is the gender disparity that existed in restoring employment. While men fully regained the jobs they lost during the pandemic a number of months ago, women were still down about 100,000 jobs. This latest jobs report means that both men and women have now fully regained jobs lost during the pandemic, with each gender seeing growth of just under 160,000 jobs. 318,000 jobs is not the same type of blowout jobs report we saw in July, but it is a good jobs report that proves that, even as economists fear a recession, the labor market is still strong.

     Next month, President Biden could hit a very important milestone in America's economic recovery: the August 2022 Jobs Report demonstrated that America has created nearly 9.9 million jobs since President Biden took office. If we are able even to replicate this month's jobs report in September, the number of jobs created since President Biden took office will surpass 10 million. 

     There is still so much more to do: we need to ensure that each and every state fully restores employment to pre-pandemic levels and makes more progress. We need to ensure the same is true of every industry and every race. We need to fill the critical gaps in professions like teaching, manufacturing, nursing, and law enforcement. This is an opportunity, an opportunity to create millions more good-paying jobs in the months and years to come. In four years, Jimmy Carter created 10.6 million jobs; in eight years, Barack Obama created 11.6 million jobs; in six years, Lyndon Johnson created 12.2 million jobs. President Biden could hold the distinction of creating the fourth-highest number of jobs of any president as soon as next year by doing just the aforementioned things. That's building back better.