Fact Check: Biden Falsely Claims Unemployment Was 15% When He Took Office

Claim: Joe Biden repeatedly said the unemployment rate was 15 percent when he took office in 2021.

Although many people heard Biden as announcing that unemployment was 50 percent he took office, the president most likely said that unemployment was 50 percent.

“There were no jobs,” Biden said.

Verdict: False.

The unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in January of 2021, when Biden took office.

In March of 2020, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. It spiked to 14.8 percent in April and rapidly declined after that. By November, when the 2020 presidential election was held, it had fallen to 6.7 percent.

Although 6.4 percent is high by recent standards, it is lower than the 7.7 percent unemployment rate in 2012 when President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden were campaigning for re-election while claiming they had repaired the economy. The unemployment rate did not fall below 6.4 percent until five years into the Obama-Biden administrration.