The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion The most important economic number hasn’t gotten enough attention

Columnist|
November 7, 2023 at 7:45 a.m. EST
The EEW wind turbine manufacturing facility on July 14 in Paulsboro, N.J. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)
5 min

Americans have no shortage of economic data. Some of the data — 14 million new jobs — is familiar by now.

Unemployment is at 3.9 percent. Manufacturing jobs have increased by around 800,000 under President Biden. And the clean-energy boom is well underway. (“A nonpartisan business group that advocates for clean energy estimates that 403,000 jobs will be created by the 210 major energy projects announced since the Inflation Reduction Act took effect in mid-2022,” the Associated Press reported recently. “At least $86 billion in investments have been announced, with the biggest job gains in expected in the electric vehicles, battery storage and solar energy sectors.”)