The job market is growing and unemployment is falling, but with the price of everything going up, the public simply isn’t happy.
The South Carolina resident works 62 hours a week, seven days a week, juggling two low-paid jobs. The first, at KFC, pays $US12 an hour; the second, at a gas station, pays $US9 an hour. Not surprisingly, Schaffer says, “I’m exhausted”.
“I struggle to pay my rent, I’m facing eviction every month and my elderly father who is also disabled lives with me. You try to juggle everything, then you still end up far behind.” Indeed, according to RealClearPolitics, which aggregates the country’s most credible polls into averages, only 35.5 per cent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy compared to 60.4 per cent who disapprove.
It’s not hard to see where the disconnect lies. Walk into any grocery store in America and the price of almost everything on the shelf has surged. The prices of beef and pork, for example, are up by more than 14 per cent compared to one year ago. Bread is up by almost 9 per cent, milk by almost 15 per cent, and cereal by 11.9 per cent.
Against this backdrop, the White House last week unveiled a month-long focus on the economy in the hope of stemming some of the political damage.