The way the jobs market is improving, it’s not hard to see why consumers are in such a good mood. Biden is the only president over the past half century with robust increases in non-farm payrolls (4.3%) and manufacturing jobs (2.6%), approaching the gains enjoyed by Carter in general employment (4.6%) and factory workers (3.9%). Trump, who inherited the longest expansion in modern times and said in 2015 he would “be greatest jobs producer that God ever created,” is an also-ran, with non-farm and manufacturing payrolls inching up 1.4% and 1.3%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jobs Boom
Companies need all the workers they can get. U.S. business output, a measure of productivity, increased 4.4%, putting Biden ahead of every predecessor except Carter, where it gained 6.25%. No wonder confidence among chief executive officers of the largest U.S. companies soared to a record this year as expectations for hiring, capital investment and sales improved. The Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook index, launched in 2004, rose 10 points to 124 in the fourth quarter, the highest in 20 years.
America’s economy is the envy of the world, looking at the foreign-exchange market. The dollar has strengthened 7.37% this year. That is the most under a first-year president since the greenback gained 17.8% for Reagan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In another sign that the U.S. economy is a global leader under Biden, U.S. stocks outperformed the world equity market by 6.3 percentage points, the widest advantage since 1988, when George H.W. Bush was in the White House, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Beating The World
The good times may extend into 2022. Biden's bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bodes well for the economy and American labor because it will rebuild the nation's deteriorating roads and bridges as well as fund climate and broadband initiatives that create jobs. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said his priority was preventing the Biden agenda, voted for the law along with 18 fellow Republicans.
Biden, like Carter, now faces the political fallout of the accelerating inflation from global supply chain breakdowns associated with the pandemic even though maintaining stable inflation and interest rates are the primary responsibility of the Federal Reserve, and the Fed said it's prepared to tighten monetary policy in 2022.
Biden, unlike Carter, benefits from the $29 trillion U.S. debt market. In contrast to the 1970s and early 1980s, confidence in the Fed’s ability to get inflation back under control is unimpaired, reflected in the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fluctuating below 1.7% as inflation hovers at 4.1%. When Carter was in the White House, investors lost confidence in the Fed, evidenced by the 10-year yield rising to 12.6% with inflation reaching 9.65%.
The clear message from the market that tells all other markets what to do is that the people with the most at stake are betting on the Biden economy.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.