(Bloomberg) -- Disappointing growth in the U.S. labor market last month strengthens the argument to deliver more fiscal support to the economy, according to a senior economic adviser to President Joe Biden.
“The numbers that we got this morning really do underscore the cost of inaction,” Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television with Jonathan Ferro. “The January numbers are quite disappointing. They show that the pace of job growth is slow.”
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U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by just 49,000 after a downwardly revised 227,000 December decrease, according to a Labor Department report Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% as fewer people participated in the workforce. Overall jobs remain about 10 million below pre-pandemic levels.
“Without further aid our economy is going to continue to struggle,” Boushey said. “We need to continue to act and we need to do so quickly.”
Biden is scheduled to speak later Friday about the economy and his stimulus proposal.
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