Today's report shows that my plan to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out is working to get America back to work. Since I took office, the economy has created 7.4 million jobs. That's 7.4 million jobs providing families with dignity and a little more breathing room. We are building a better America.
In February, the economy created 678,000 jobs, following the greatest year of job growth in American history and the fastest economic growth in almost 40 years. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8 percent. And, at the same time, more people are rejoining the labor force and finding jobs as we recover from the pandemic. And people went back to work in February across a wide ranges of industries-with jobs gained in leisure and hospitality, construction, retail, and manufacturing. In fact, last year has been the best year for manufacturing jobs and trucking jobs since 1994. We are making more and moving goods faster in America.
This progress is the result of the new economic approach I talked about in the State of the Union-grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out. And it's a result of our success combatting COVID-19 and moving forward safely. While we must tackle head on the challenge families are facing with rising costs, today's report underscores that the United States is uniquely well positioned to deal with the challenge that inflation has posed across the world as we recover from the pandemic.
