Steve Forbes rips disappointing November jobs report: 'Government is the problem'

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Steve Forbes rips disappointing November job numbers: 'Government is the problem'

Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes argues the Biden administration's 'artificial barriers' are preventing the economy from recovering after U.S. hiring stumbles in November.

Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes slammed the Biden administration on "The Faulkner Focus" Friday for hindering U.S. economic recovery with "artificial barriers" following weak November hiring numbers that were significantly below expectations.

US HIRING STUMBLES IN NOVEMBER AS ECONOMY ADDS JUST 210,000 NEW JOBS

STEVE FORBES: What you have is an economy that wants to move ahead but there's still artificial barriers there. Yes, we know the huge supply chain problems. Those are underestimated when you shut down a global economy, not helping that in the future. Europe is locking down again. But the fact is that lockdowns don't work. We know medically they don't work, economically they're hugely disruptive, in terms of health care they're hugely disruptive. So in terms of the economy, the administration is still waging war, for example, against the oil and gas industry. They haven't yet explained why getting a barrel of oil from Russia is somehow better for climate change than getting a barrel of oil from America. So they want Russia to produce more and we to produce less. And those kinds of mixed signals are hurting investment in the future. So if they just get out of the way, the American people would do it. One of the amazing things about this jobs report is that they have a thing called the household survey, and the employment numbers there fluctuate widely from month to month, but they do take account of small businesses. Those jobs numbers went up 1.1 million. So you have a lot of small businesses ready to go but now you have the vaccine mandate in there, which is going to hurt, especially in critical areas. So the government is the problem, not the -- and I think people fear what the government is going to do in response to this new variant more than they do the variant itself. 

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