These numbers on Biden and Harris's job growth? No matter | EDITORIAL | Editorial

Strong job growth was a safe haven for the Harris-Biden administration amid a wave of inflation, rising energy costs and high interest rates. But now it seems that even that was an illusion.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department announced that its monthly job growth figures for the 12 months through March had been overstated by an estimated 818,000 jobs. That's a downward revision of 28 percent, the largest such change since 2009. The updated figures are “a sign that the cracks in the labor market are more severe — and formed earlier — than initially thought,” the New York Times reported.

“We knew that things were probably starting to move in the wrong direction online,” Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, a labor market research and data firm, told the Times. “This largely confirms what a holistic look at labor market data was already saying before today.”

Voters should note that the changes come at the same time as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Democrats have proposed a range of new government market interventions—such as price controls on food!—to address the problems their own policies have imposed on American families struggling with persistently higher costs of everyday staples and consumer goods and services.

Ms. Harris is desperately trying to pass off the limited economic plan she unveiled last week — shaped by her deep, unwavering belief that there is no evil that cannot be solved by the largesse of the federal bureaucracy spending trillions of foreign money — as an example of the kind of “change” she will bring to the White House. In reality, it is more than the same political oil that sparked 9 percent inflation, drove gasoline prices above $5 a gallon and made homeowners blanch every time they open an electric bill.

Her plan would slow job growth even further. On Monday, Ms. Harris announced her support for a 33 percent corporate tax increase. That's a recipe that will slow wages and industrial growth while raising prices and weighing on the economy. Who does the Vice President think should pay for this higher levy? Corporations don't pay taxes, they collect them from the consumers who buy their products.

The US economy has failed many Americans during the Harris-Biden years. The sharp decline in job gains further undermines the White House's efforts to sugarcoat things. And Mrs Harris's economic agenda – at least as far as she has been allowed to talk about it so far – is a recipe for making things much worse.