New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows metro unemployment fell to a record low in Youngstown, and President Joe Biden mentioned the city Wednesday.

“Under Bidenomics, America is back to work and leading the world again, and with the Youngstown area at its lowest unemployment rate on record, it is helping drive America’s strong economic growth,” Biden stated.

“With my investments to help rebuild Youngstown infrastructure, and private sector investments pouring in across the state, Youngstown can help lead America’s economy for the next generation, too.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metropolitan area’s unemployment rate for July was 4.1%, compared to 5.2% in July 2022.

In June, the metro area’s unemployment rate was 4.3%, compared to 5.3% in June 2022.

That’s a far cry from October 2018 when Youngstown had the highest unemployment in Ohio among cities with a population of 50,000 or more — at 7.4%.

SUMMER PITCH

Biden this summer has been delivering his pitch to a skeptical public that the U.S. economy is thriving under what he and the White House are calling“Bidenomics,” expected to be a key theme of his 2024 re-election bid.

It includes trillions of public and private dollars flowing in the U.S. this past year to build thousands of roads, bridges and manufacturing projects in communities large and small in states red and blue.

They include an electric vehicle “battery belt” of manufacturing stretching from Michigan to Georgia, semiconductor fabrication plants in Arizona, Texas, Ohio and New York and broadband coming to Appalachia.

Taken together, they represent Biden’s ambitious attempt to use the levers of government to chart a new era of domestic manufacturing, modernizing the U.S. to compete in the 21st century.

“Bidenomics” is the product of three major bills approved in the last Congress that also are the president’s hoped-for roadmap for re-election. Republicans have balked at what they said was unwarranted federal spending. The debate between those two views could go a long way toward determining who wins the White House and control of Congress in 2024.

Much like the development of the federal highway system in the 1950s or the space race to the moon in the 1960s, the undertaking is once in a generation. More recently, presidents have tapped Congress to deliver on their vision for social or fiscal policy, with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, a decade ago and Trump’s GOP tax cuts in 2017.

Now rounding year one, it remains a work in progress. The Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are coming into fruition at a time of economic churn and stubborn inflation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTEREST RATES

The continued strength of the U.S. economy could require further interest rate increases, however, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned recently as he highlighted the uncertain nature of the economic outlook.

Powell noted that the economy has been growing faster than expected and that consumers have kept spending briskly — trends that could keep inflation pressures high. He reiterated the Fed’s determination to keep its benchmark rate elevated until inflation is reduced to its 2% target.

“We are attentive to signs that the economy may not be cooling as expected,” Powell said. “We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective.

“Although inflation has moved down from its peak — a welcome development — it remains too high.”