U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh recently issued a statement detailing the January 2022 employment report in a press release, which showcased job growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Walsh, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the economy generated 467,000 jobs in January.
The unemployment rate remained at 4% in the same month, indicating no significant shift from December.
Additionally, the latest data indicates that the economy generated 6.6 million jobs in Biden's first year, along with an average of 541,000 new jobs each month over the previous three months.
Walsh attributed this increase in job growth to the Biden-Harris administration's "worker-centered recovery," praising it as evidence of policies that have equipped people and businesses with the necessary tools to bolster the economy's resilience in the face of the Omicron variant.
“At the Department of Labor, we are focused on empowering all workers to seize the better opportunities they are seeking in this recovery,” Sec. Walsh stated in the press release.
Although the black unemployment rate declined in January, it remains almost twice that of white people.
Additionally, black employees continue to be denied paid leave to recover from illness or to take care of their families.
The President's Build Back Better proposals reportedly seek to address these concerns by providing paid leave, job training, and reduced health-care expenses for working families, while also developing a more sustainable economy.
Other projects include the Good Jobs Initiative, which aims to generate good jobs and ensure that they are accessible to everybody.
