Biden sees US economy as powering past the pandemic

By JOSH BOAK
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and the White House were bracing for bad economic news. But instead they got a pleasant surprise Friday — that the U.S. economy had powered through the omicron wave of the coronavirus and posted 467,000 new jobs in January. The figures showed just how much the pandemic’s grip on the economy has faded at the end of Biden’s first year in office. He acknowledged inflation is still a problem — and Republicans tried to come up with less-hopeful reasons for the jobs growth. But Biden saw sunlight, and even better times ahead if Republicans will get behind his next big economic proposal in Congress.