The White House prepared to celebrate a jobs-gained milestone of 2 million on Friday under President Joe Biden during his first 100 days — but those plans were shattered by the devastating jobs report for April.
Punchbowl News reported Friday morning that senior White House staffers were watching the jobs estimates of created 700,000 jobs, eager to promote the record number of jobs created during Biden’s first 100 days.
“If the U.S. economy adds 700,000 jobs in this latest report, that will be 2 million new jobs in the first 100 days of the new administration,” the report read, “Joe Biden would be the first president to reach 2 million jobs in that time period.”
The White House had already scheduled an 11:30 a.m. event for the president to deliver remarks on the jobs report before leaving Washington, DC, for a weekend at his home in Delaware, presumably to celebrate the gigantic milestone.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also scheduled for an economic briefing and a meeting with his jobs cabinet on Friday afternoon. Press Secretary Jen Psaki scheduled a press briefing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, presumably to trumpet the great economic news.
But the job numbers report showed Friday that unemployment ticked up to 6.1 percent and only 266,000 jobs were created in April. Previous job gains were also revised down.
On Thursday, Joe Biden boasted of his record in creating jobs, with anticipation of further gains.
“One of the things that — that I’m proud of is, in the first 100 days that I became President, we have created more jobs in that period of time than any administration in history,” he said proudly at an event in Louisiana.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain suggested Friday the jobs report only bolstered the notion that there was too much spending in the coronavirus relief package after he retweeted analysis from TPM’s Josh Marshall.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Twitter
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