President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 7. The speech will take place at a pivotal time in his presidency as he is facing multiple challenges and speculation mounts about his plans for seeking a second term in 2024.
During the speech, Biden is expected to tout the low unemployment rate, slowing inflation numbers, and the January jobs report that produced better-than-expected numbers.
A jobs report released by the Department of Labor on Feb. 3 indicated the lowest unemployment rate since May 1969 at 3.4 percent. On Jan. 26, the Department of Commerce published a report showing that Gross Domestic Product increased by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Despite GDP increasing 3.2 percent during the previous quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Biden said that evidence suggests “the Biden economic plan” is working.
Department of Labor data shows that companies added 6.74 million employees to nonfarm payrolls in 2021 and hired 4.50 million more workers last year.
“For the past two years, we’ve heard a chorus of critics write off my economic plan,” Biden said on Feb. 3. “Today’s data makes crystal clear what I’ve always known in my gut: These critics and cynics are wrong.”
The White House indicated that Biden will also highlight legislation that he championed in his first two years that support his “promise to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” including the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“President Biden will highlight the historic progress we have made to bring the economy back from the pandemic and create more jobs in a two-year period than under any other president on record,” a White House statement previewing Biden’s State of the Union address reported.
