The lower numbers of claims and higher pay for Americans are signs of progress in spite of the soaring inflation rates, he said in a statement.

“That’s a sign of the real progress we’ve made in getting Americans back to work over the last year,” he said about the unemployment claims.

Still, increased consumer prices have largely outpaced wage increases and effectively caused the average worker to take a 2.4 percent pay cut last year, CNBC reported.

The increased prices have become a common complaint about the Biden administration, which is looking to gain favor along with the Democratic party ahead of the crucial midterm elections in November.

A recent poll by the Economist and YouGovAmerica found that as of January 22, just 35 percent of Americans approved of Biden’s handling of jobs and the economy. Fifty-two percent of poll respondents said that they disapproved of his handling.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that prices rose 7.5 percent last month compared with a year earlier, marking the highest year-over-year increase since February of 1982. The inflation rate was also up from the 7 percent increase in December, which was touted then as the fastest pace since June of 1982, Newsweek reported.

But the Labor Department released another, more positive report on Thursday, when it also announced that unemployment claims last week had fallen by 16,000. It was the third straight week of claim declines, bolstering another department report from last week saying that 467,000 new jobs were added in January.

Biden noted these developments, along with the higher wages many U.S. workers have been earning in recent months, in his statement on Thursday.

“My two top economic priorities have been to create a growing economy with more good-paying jobs, and to lower the prices Americans have faced from the global problem of inflation related to the pandemic. We have seen historic success on the first priority, with the greatest year of job growth in history, Americans finding better jobs, better wages, and better benefits, along with the fastest economic growth in decades,” the statement read.

He said that “every tool at our disposal” was being used to combat the increased prices, and despite the financial stress of inflation, “there are also signs that we will make it through this challenge.”

Biden said that forecasters have been predicting that inflation will be substantially alleviated by the end of the year, and added that wages had “fortunately” risen in the previous month.

“We will continue to fight for costs in areas that have held back families and working people for decades, from prescription drugs to child care and elder care to their energy costs. And we will continue to promote more competition to make our markets more competitive and give consumers more choices,” Biden said in the statement.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.

​​Update 2/10/22, 12:12 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information.