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July jobs report shows improvement, but still not back to pre-pandemic normal

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By Jenny Goldsberry

The US jobs report came out Friday demonstrating a 943,000 increase in jobs and 5.4% in unemployment. While the data isn’t still back to pre-pandemic norms, jobs have steadily increased since January. The Dow Jones estimated fewer jobs and a higher unemployment rate.

First, of all non-farm jobs, the leisure and hospitality industry did best in July. It added 380,000 positions. As a result of COVID-19 restrictions ending, 253,000 of those came from bars and restaurants. The industry also did exceptionally well in May.

“More jobs than have been created in the first four months in any presidency in modern history.” Conveniently, he left out the historic job losses that happened leading up to his inauguration.

Back in May, President Biden responded to disappointing numbers. Then, Biden blamed the number on vaccination rates, since the data was collected during the first week in May. Back then, Biden said, the vaccination rate for adults was only 35%. By the end of May, it was reported to be at 63%. Now, the vaccination rate has reached 70%.

“We’re now the first administration in history to add jobs every month of our first six months in office,” Biden tweeted Friday. It’s a talking point he’s said in previous months as well. However, the historic job losses leading up to his inauguration should also be taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, two years ago in July, the unemployment rate was 3.7%. Yet there were only 164,000 jobs created then. Just last year over the US saw 1.7 million new jobs in July. But 10.2% of Americans were unemployed.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.

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Economy

White House announced $6 billion student loan forgiveness for 78,000 public service workers

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United States Congress

The White House recently announced a $6 billion loan forgiveness program. Nurses, teachers and firefighters are among the 78,000 public service workers who will qualify. Fox Business reports:

Due to fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, workers that never received forgiveness are now having their debts partially forgiven or canceled. Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000, the announcement said.

“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve achieved for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years,” the announcement stated. “This includes: providing the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing Income-Driven Repayment plans so borrowers in repayment for years get the relief they earned; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the SAVE plan.”

However, there is concern over fairness that older generations are still paying off student loans and could risk losing Social Security. A group of representatives wrote a letter to Congress, hoping to address the issue of seniors still paying down student loans. Currently, under the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), the government can collect funds, such as tax refunds and Social Security, to pay outstanding student loan balances, reports Fox Business.

“Under the TOP, the federal government can withhold up to 15 percent of monthly Social Security or disability benefits for defaulted student loans,” the lawmakers explained in their letter.

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