Claudia Sahm, Columnist

Can Biden’s Economic Policies Help Those Left Behind?

The president’s programs are nationwide in scope but their true value will be measured in how they affect depressed regions of the country.

October 12, 2023 at 11:30 AM UTC

By Claudia Sahm

Claudia Sahm is the chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Federal Reserve economist. She is the creator of the Sahm rule, a recession indicator.

Some places are more in need of jobs than others.
Photographer: Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group Editorial

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The stakes are high for President Joe Biden’s trifecta of investment packages: the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. If implemented well, they have the potential to rejuvenate the left-behind parts of America.

Place-based inequities in the US are dramatic and costly. Nationally, the unemployment rate has held near historic lows of 3.5% for more than a year. But unemployment is far higher in several parts of the US, many of them rural, such as Yuma County in Arizona (15%) or Rolette County in North Dakota (10.5%). And when a region is distressed, more job openings do not push up inflation — they create economic opportunities for workers and can boost productivity.