--- title: Biden Takes Victory Lap as Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-08-05T20:30:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T12:36:06.659Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Takes Victory Lap as Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk og:description: "Today there are more people working in America than before the pandemic began," the President boasted. og:url: https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9700fd2a09bf746c/698a3465096a940bae6acd50/GettyImages-1242324121.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Biden Signs Two Bills That Combat COVID-19 Small Business Relief Fraud og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Takes Victory Lap as Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk twitter:description: "Today there are more people working in America than before the pandemic began," the President boasted. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9700fd2a09bf746c/698a3465096a940bae6acd50/GettyImages-1242324121.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Takes Victory Lap as Stellar Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Aug 5, 2022 8:30 PM UTC  U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on a strikingly positive jobs report before signing two bills aimed at combating fraud in the COVID-19 small business relief programs at the White House on August 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on a strikingly positive jobs report before signing two bills aimed at combating fraud in the COVID-19 small business relief programs at the White House on August 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. Evan Vucci—Pool/Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Aug 5, 2022 8:30 PM UTC He kept the sunglasses on. As Joe Biden walked out onto the south balcony of the White House on a blisteringly hot Friday in August in Washington, he reached up to take off his signature aviator shades, but decided to leave them in place, perhaps a sign of his sunny mood after the release of a record-setting jobs report. “Today there are more people working in America than before the pandemic began,” Biden said. “In fact, there are more people working in America than at any point in American history.” The U.S. economy added 528,000 new jobs in July, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.5%, the lowest in five decades. The jobs numbers, which smashed market expectations, showed that the country has recovered all of the jobs lost during the pandemic. “It puts to an end any notion that the economy is currently in a recession,” says Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. “It’s unabashedly, directly, in every way you look at it, news suggesting the economy is growing robustly, that people are getting jobs. The labor market not only is healing, but has fully healed.” The positive economic news comes at a time when gas prices have slowly ticked downward since a high in June, and Biden is set to sign new legislation next week to bolster computer chip manufacturing in the U.S. [Another piece of legislation](https://time.com/6201851/schumer-climate-tax-deal-republicans-deceive/) on track to move rapidly through Congress could lower prescription drug costs for millions of older Americans, extend assistance for lowering health insurance premiums, and create the largest [investment ](https://time.com/6201799/manchin-climate-deal/)to address [climate change](https://time.com/6203668/inflation-reduction-act-climate-fight/) in U.S. history. After months of devastating headlines about soaring inflation, the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and his dreadful approval numbers, this week brought other developments suggesting Biden’s political future may be looking brighter. Kansas voters [resoundingly rejecte](https://time.com/6203178/kansas-abortion-vote-results-takeaways/)d an anti-abortion amendment to change the state constitution, an early sign that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade may motivate more voters to support Democrats in the midterm elections this fall. Finland and Sweden are on track to join the North Atlantic Treating Organization, in a historic expansion of the alliance championed by Biden. And even Republicans expressed approval of the announcement that the CIA had successfully killed Al Qaeda’s leader [Ayman al-Zawahiri](https://time.com/6202703/biden-al-zawahiri-al-qaeda-afghanistan/), one of the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Even Biden’s recent bout with COVID-19 has provided a contrast to how much things have changed under his tenure. His ability to weather the illness with mild symptoms highlighted how the widespread distribution of vaccines and therapeutics have allowed Americans to get back to work. “The policies that have helped put the pandemic in the rearview mirror are a big part of our macroeconomic story right now,” Wolfers says. Republicans said the low unemployment numbers underscored how American businesses are struggling to find enough workers and that Democratic policies intended to make health care more affordable would discourage more people from joining the workforce. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate is expected to take up this weekend, and the House may send to Biden’s desk by the end of next week, “will worsen the workforce shortage with lavish health care subsidies that provide more affordable health care to the jobless than to those returning to work, on top of crushing tax hikes on ‘Made-in-America’ manufacturers,” Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement. “None of this makes any economic sense.” Biden appears happy to have that debate, noting on Friday that the robust jobs market was evidence he was following through on his promise to orient the economy toward building up the middle class. “Workers are being empowered,” Biden said, adding later, “Where I come from, that’s a good thing and it’s long overdue.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/"},"headline":"Biden Takes Victory Lap as Stellar Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk","datePublished":"2022-08-05T20:30:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:36:06.659Z","description":"“Today there are more people working in America than before the pandemic began,” the President boasted.","url":"https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/","keywords":["Joe Biden","Economy","White House","Biden Administration","2022 Midterm Elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9700fd2a09bf746c/698a3465096a940bae6acd50/GettyImages-1242324121.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9700fd2a09bf746c/698a3465096a940bae6acd50/GettyImages-1242324121.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Biden Signs Two Bills That Combat COVID-19 Small Business Relief Fraud","caption":"President Biden Signs Two Bills That Combat COVID-19 Small Business Relief Fraud","creditText":"Evan Vucci—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/joe-biden/","name":"Joe Biden"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6204141/biden-jobs-report-july-economy/","name":"Biden Takes Victory Lap as Stellar Jobs Report Cools Recession Talk"}}]}] ```