Skip to main content

Jobs & the Economy

Creating jobs and expanding economic opportunity continues to be Democrats’ top priority.

Throughout the 117th Congress, House Democrats have partnered with President Biden to enact policies that expand economic opportunity for businesses, workers, and communities across America. Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the unemployment rate is at its lowest in more than 50 years with more than 10 million jobs created, helping more of our people get ahead in today’s economy and Make It In America.
 
Democrats pursue an economic agenda that helps American businesses create good-paying jobs and ensure that workers have the tools not only to get by but to get ahead in our global economy.  From raising the minimum wage to providing skills training and apprenticeship opportunities to ensuring equal pay for equal work, from making childcare more affordable to making it easier to save for retirement, Democrats’ economic policies are aimed at helping workers and their families attain real economic security at every stage of life. 
 
Democrats have also delivered historic legislation investing in infrastructure and greater access to high-speed internet, taking the lead in the clean-energy economy, and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. The generational Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already begun to expand economic opportunity for Americans in communities across the country and takes action to repair our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and other infrastructure while creating nearly 1.5 million jobs annually over the next decade. It contains the first major American investment in climate resilience to help communities upgrade their critical infrastructure and mitigate the impact of climate change-driven extreme weather. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act also advances America’s clean energy goals, turbocharging clean energy research and transmission while promoting electric vehicle domestic manufacturing to reduce American dependence on gasoline while revitalizing our auto industry.
 
The CHIPS and Science Act includes bipartisan measures to revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur research. By strengthening domestic supply chains, this law acts directly to accelerate American innovation in the long-term while acting immediately to address inflation and create good paying jobs. House Democrats will continue to champion skills training and education at every level – from early childhood learning through higher education – to prepare our people for success and advancement in a changing economy.  In all of these efforts, Democrats will continue to look for ways to make access to opportunities more equitable and to combat the lingering effects of legalized discrimination that continue to make it harder for minorities to access credit for loans, seek investment capital for startups, and build wealth to pass on to the next generation. 
 
With historic job creation under President Biden, House Democrats will continue to advance policies that expand economic opportunity for working families, support small businesses, and create better-paying jobs.


Related

Today, the Department of Labor announced unemployment numbers for September.
Today's report on unemployment from the Department of Labor is disappointing and while the numbers are better than they were a year ago, they are still far too high.
Today’s report on September job losses is disappointing news. Though economists largely agree that the recession that began in December 2007 has ended, that brings little comfort to Americans who are still out of work.
Why do so many schools have auditoriums? Why do they have athletic fields? We take features like those for granted today, but there was a time when a school building with anything more than classrooms and chalkboards was considered wildly unorthodox.
On Thursday, Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers delivered a speech on the state of the economy, crediting “the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government for taking actions that…prevented the economy from going ‘over the edge as it did in the 1930s.’”
Today, the Government Accountability Office, the federal government’s top watchdog, released a report on the progress made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in fighting the recession across America.
Today, the House passed the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009.
Eight months into the 111th Congress, and the Obama presidency, it is clear that the economic policies that we have put in place are helping to pull our country out of recession.
Under the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the pace of job loss has declined dramatically in recent months. However, because the recession was so deep, it will take more time to completely reverse the more than 6.9 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in 2007.
In remarks made after a speech marking the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that the recession is “very likely over.”