The economy is actually pretty good. Here’s why Biden has had difficulty selling that.

The economy is doing pretty well. So why doesn’t it feel that way? And why isn’t the Biden administration selling it that way?

Let’s start with the good news, coming from the jobs report released Friday.

U.S. employers added 531,000 jobs on net in October, significantly higher than each of the previous two months. Those months’ (initially very disappointing) figures have just been revised upward, too. Job gains in October were widespread, with growth across leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing. The impact of the covid-19 delta variant seems to be fading.

We still have a jobs deficit relative to the level of employment when the pandemic recession began, but we’re digging out of it.

Meanwhile, Americans’ perceptions of the job market are stellar. Gallup recently found that 74 percent of Americans say now is a good time to find a quality job. That’s the highest share since it began asking the question 20 years ago.

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