Joe Biden is about to start lying again about employment numbers, and Issues & Insights has the full debunking even before he gets started.

When the numbers are released, there will probably be some kind of positive printout, and Joe or his surrogates will immediately tout that he himself "created" them.

It's a put-up job, the editorial page writes, bringing all the receipts.  Here are a few to start:

But the numbers getting bandied about these days about job growth and unemployment are wildly misleading because they ignore important bits of context. Such as:

1. The pace of job growth slowed considerably once Biden started "rescuing" the economy.
2. It took just nine months under President Donald Trump for the economy to regain 57% of the 22 million jobs lost during the COVID lockdowns. It took 17 months under Biden to regain the other 43%.
3. The economy was adding jobs at an average of 1.3 million a month in Trump's last nine months in office. In the first nine months of Biden's term, job growth averaged 620,000.
4. As a result, job growth is now behind the pace set by most recoveries since 1948, according to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

The editorial page group, which is run by my former colleagues at Investor's Business Daily's now shuttered editorial page, is full of sharp minds that understand actual economics.

They pointed out that most of the jobs growth that Biden will tout from today's Department of Labor report, will largely be coming from red states — think Texas, Florida, and other job-creating engines — while blue states run by leftists will lag far behind.  It's easy to cover up that sorry breakdown through national statistics, isn't it?

They also explain how the corresponding unemployment numbers is largely the result of discouraged workers dropping out of the workforce, and thus not even being counted as unemployed.  The real figure is around 5% which they note, is "not terrible, but it's hardly anything to brag about."

The broad picture shows that Joe Biden has "smothered" the economic recovery that came as a result of the lifting of COVID lockdowns like a damp blanket.  What a thing to have imposed on an event that naturally occurs and always has occurred historically following a downturn, all because Joe has heaped punishing taxes and regulations onto the productive private sector of the economy for almost two long years. 

As I read the horrid stories from the San Francisco Bay Area in blue-state California about one leading restaurant after another closing down forever because their owners can't take it anymore, this I&I essay explains what's really going on far better than any spin the Biden spin team or Joe himself can gaslight out.

Everyone knows there's a problem with the economy when we read stories like this:

Treasured East Bay barbecue restaurant closes after 55 years

...with descriptions like this:

KC's BBQ, a beloved East Bay barbecue institution, has closed after 55 years serving ribs, smoked sausage links and mac and cheese.

The Berkeley restaurant, at 1235 San Pablo Ave., announced the closure on social media on Wednesday night. Kristen Davis, the third-generation co-owner of KC's, said the restaurant had been struggling for months to keep up with the increasing cost of doing business in the Bay Area. As KC's ingredients and supplies became more expensive, the owners raised prices multiple times, ultimately by as much as 35%, Davis said. But it wasn't enough to turn a profit. 

"The aftereffects of COVID really are still hitting a lot of businesses. There was just a point where we had to make a decision. Is this really worth it?" she said.

It's the latest in a spate of Bay Area restaurant closures. 

...and quotes like this:

KC's isn't gone forever, however. Kristen Davis said the family hopes to pivot to catering and private events or maybe open a food truck, which has lower overhead than a full-service restaurant. But there will likely never again be another KC's restaurant, she said. 

"I give kudos to all those small businesses that are still going. It's a lot," she said. "I don't really have the desire to try to take on the monster that is a brick and mortar."

There's your real Joe Biden economy for you, smothered in the crib by a foul old phony in the White House who is about to assure you he's handling the economy swimmingly.  No, he's not.

Read the whole I&I editorial here.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.