When President Joe Biden took office, the unemployment rate was 6.4%. It is now 4.3%. For most of his presidency, the unemployment rate has been below 4%, a stretch of low unemployment not seen in more than half a century.
The tight labor market empowered workers to resist employers' demands that they return to the office when the worst of the pandemic was over. As a result, the number of people who report being able to work from home has increased by 19 million from the pre-pandemic level.
This is not just an issue of millions more people being able to get jobs. When the labor market is as strong as it has been, workers can choose employment. They can leave jobs where the pay is low, the workplace is unsafe or the boss is a jerk.
Workers switched jobs in record numbers in the years 2021 through 2023. Tens of millions of people quit their jobs and moved to better ones. One result was that workers reported the highest job satisfaction rate on record.
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