Biden touts economic progress after US adds 559,000 jobs in May

President Joe Biden on Friday touted the economic progress the US has made in its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic after the government reported 559,000 jobs were added in May.

“No other major economy in the world is growing as fast as ours. No other major economy is gaining jobs as quickly as ours. And none of this success is an accident. It isn’t luck,” Biden said, speaking from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

The President continued: “It’s due in no small part, first of all, to the cooperation of the American people in responding to my effort to get Covid under control — wearing masks initially and getting vaccinated. And it’s no small part to the bold action we took by passing the American Rescue Plan.”

The May jobs report showed the US labor market picking up some steam and was an improvement from the disappointing April jobs report. The unemployment rate also fell to 5.8% in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Though it was an improvement from April, which showed a revised 278,000 jobs added, the number of jobs added last month was still less than the 650,000 jobs economists had predicted. The US is also still down 7.6 million jobs compared to February 2020, before lockdowns were put in place across the country to stop the spread of Covid-19.

This story is breaking and will be updated.