Biden says most Americans can remove masks, return to work safely
On Friday, President Biden echoed what he said in his State of the Union address, reiterating that ”most Americans can remove their masks, return to work and move forward safely,” citing desired vaccination and hospitalization rates.
Video Transcript
JOE BIDEN: Earlier this week in my State of the Union address I said there was something happening in America, starting with historic economic recovery that we're seeing right now. And today we've learned that in February, our economy created 678,000 new jobs. 678,000 new jobs.
Over the course of my presidency, our economy has now created 7.4 million jobs. More jobs created in a 13 month period than any time ever before in our history. And we've learned that in February the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, down from 6.4% the day I took office beginning in 2021, which is the fastest decline in unemployment rate in recorded history. Because of all of you.
And by the way, before the American Rescue Plan passed, the Congressional Budget Office didn't project our unemployment rate hit 3.8% at any time over the entire decade. Americans are back to work. Yes, family budgets are still tight, but a lot of Americans are getting paychecks this year more than they got last year and restoring the dignity of work so they can show up at work with some pride.
Job gains in February were broad-based across sectors, from construction to retail, to manufacturing, to leisure and hospitality. The decline in the unemployment rate was broad based as well. The fact that unemployment rate among workers without high school degrees fell to 4.3%, the lowest since we've been keeping records, 4.3%. It's amazing.
Workers' weekly earnings rose in February. The people in working class sectors like transportation, warehousing, saw some of the strongest wage gains. This is what it looks like to grow an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. Because of the progress we've made in fighting COVID, Americans can not only get back to work, but they can go to the office and safely fill our great downtown cities again and creating more commerce. With 75% of adult Americans fully vaccinated and hospitalizations down by 77%, most Americans can remove their mask, return to work, and move forward safely.
