MS. PSAKI: Hi, everyone.

Q Hi.

MS. PSAKI: Okay. A lot going on here. I will warn you: We have some charts — (laughter) — to begin our briefing today. Settle in, everyone.

Just to give you all an update and really give the American people an update on where we are on our work on economic recovery, where we’re seeing progress — and wanted to, of course, show you some visuals as evidence of that.

So, let me start:

Today’s unemployment claims data are another welcome sign of our economy’s strength as Americans get back to work. As of this morning, we’ve had seven consecutive weeks of decline in new unemployment claims.

And to translate that into English for people listening or watching at home: Unemployment claims are — basically, every week, Americans who no longer — who lose their jobs not at their own fault, they go and they file a claim, looking for unemployment insurance.

So, the drop in these unemployment claims — there’s actually a different chart on this; I don’t know if they can pull it up, but — that we’ve seen consecutively over the last several weeks and months is a good sign.

(The display changes.)
No, the other chart would be good —

(Ms. Psaki points to the chart on her right.)

Okay, great.

So you can see here just the dramatic drop we’ve seen since January all the way down over the last several weeks. That’s, ultimately, a good sign.

And today, in a new report, the OECD confirmed that we have returned to the pre-pandemic size of our economy faster than our global peers. While developed economies around the world are facing similar challenges on inflation because a global pandemic is causing global supply-chain issues — something we’re experiencing; something countries around the world are experiencing — this is further evidence that the President’s success in getting Americans vaccinated, getting economic support to the middle-class means that our recovery has positioned us better than any of our peers for a continued strong economic recovery. And this new report is evidence of that.

So, now we go — sorry, back to the other chart.

As we’ve said before, we are coming out — given we’re coming out of an unprecedented economic shutdown as a result of the pandemic, we know that small increases in price can impact the family’s budget.

And what we’re working to do now is both to address any issues that are slowing down the transfer of goods, moving around — it’s basically — the supply chain is basically as goods are moving around the world. So, we’re working to address those disruptions. Makes things — make sure goods are getting to shelves faster and easing price pressure.

And there’s a lot of good data out there. New data shows we’re moving more goods than ever before. Ports are moving these goods more quickly. And large retail stores like Walmart, Target, BestBuy, and TJ Maxx are fully stocked.

You’ve seen CEOs put out statements over the last several days confirming that. And Americans should feel