Bloomberg Línea — US President Joe Biden on Tuesday during his State of the Union address that “the current employment situation of minorities in the US is at 3.4%, a 50-year low and near the record-low unemployment rate for Black and Hispanic workers”.
Biden reviewed his administration’s achievements, during which the Covid-19 crisis, the war between Russia and Ukraine and global inflation have had a major impact on both the US and the world economy.
“Two years ago, our economy was faltering (..). As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has created in four years,” Biden said.
Biden highlighted 800,000 jobs created in the manufacturing sector, the fastest growth in 40 years.
He also highlighted a record 10 million Americans applying to start a new small business in the last two years, and spoke of “the special work” of Vice President Kamala Harris, who advocates for ensuring that small businesses can access capital.
Harris recently traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she highlighted the record growth of small companies in the US over the past two years, and said that Latino-owned and operated small businesses total at five million in the US, and contribute an estimated $800 billion a year to the economy.
“My economic plan is to invest in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic turmoil of the last four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated as if they were invisible,” Biden said in his speech Tuesday night, referring to minorities.
Watch Biden’s State of the Union address here:
Immigration issues
While the border crisis remains in the southern United States, awaiting the repeal of Title 42, Biden put the spotlight on what is happening in terms of drug and human trafficking.
“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human traffickers and seizing more than 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in the last few months alone.”
At the same time he called on the Republican party to “come together on the immigration issue as well and make it a bipartisan issue like it used to be”.
Last month, the Biden administration agreed to the entry of 30,000 immigrants per month from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua for humanitarian causes.
“Since we launched our new border plan last month, illegal migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela has been reduced by 97%,” he assured, but added “America’s border problems will not be solved until Congress acts.”