Saturday, Jun. 12, 2021
Did Biden’s chief of staff get all his statistics exactly right in a tweet about recent economic indicators?
Ron Klain, President Biden's chief of staff, on June 10 tweeted a series of claims about the economy. He noted—accurately—recent positive trends in overall jobless claims, pandemic unemployment assistance claims, monthly job growth and economic growth.
He misstated a detail about the latest consumer price data. The May increase (0.6% vs. April) was down from the April increase (0.8% vs. March) but not, as he stated, from the March increase, which was also 0.6%.
The claim generating the most skepticism on Twitter, however, was his assertion that gas prices were down. According to the May consumer price data gasoline prices were down 0.7% from April, making Klain technically correct.
That data appears at odds with both the anecdotal evidence of many Twitter users as well as the widely-cited AAA index. As of June 11, 2021, the AAA said gas prices were up 0.4% from a month ago.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Initial unemployment claims
- US Department of Labor Weekly unemployment claims, June 10
- US Department of Labor Weekly unemployment claims, May 13
- Economic Policy Institute Jobs and unemployment
- Federal Reserve System Summary of Economic Projections (March 17 2021)
- Macrotrends US GDP growth since 1961
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index summary, May 2021
- AAA Gas Prices National average gas prices
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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