Jan. 7 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Friday looked to put a positive spin on a disappointing December jobs report from the Labor Department, focusing on the number of jobs created over the year and historic decline in the unemployment rate.
The Labor Department on Friday morning reported December employment numbers that were less than half what some analysts expected, with about 199,000 new jobs created.
The department reported a 3.9% unemployment rate, which is also lower than what analysts had been expecting.
Economists had predicted the government would report a gain of 440,000 jobs for December, roughly double the November number. They expected the unemployment rate to drop to 4.1%.
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But the report also revised the number of jobs created in November, up to 249,000 from the originally reported 210,000.
"[The unemployment rate is] the sharpest one-year drop in unemployment in United States history," Biden said. "It's the first time the unemployment rate as been under 4% in the first year of the presidential term in 50 years. Years faster than experts said we would be able to do it."
Biden said that 6.4 million jobs have been added to the economy since last January.
"That's the most jobs by any president in any calendar year in history," Biden said.
The data, which was gathered in mid-December, missed the bulk of the Omicron variant's spread throughout the United States, which has led to increased COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and business closures.
Biden went on to tout the American Rescue Plan signed under his watch last year, saying that it helped the economy along with an infusion of stimulus money.
The president also again pushed his stalled Build Back Better plan, which he suggested would benefit the economy in a similar fashion.
Biden added that his administration's work with coastal ports helped reduce congestion and more quickly moved imported goods into the market.
ADP said in its private industry report on Wednesday that 807,000 nonfarm jobs were created in December, more than doubling the Dow Jones estimate of 375,9000 and November's report of 505,000 jobs.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said in its weekly report that a little more than 200,000 U.S. workers have filed new unemployment claims. The jobless assessment said there were 207,000 new claims last week, an increase of about 7,000.
