On The Money: Five takeaways on a surprisingly poor jobs report | GOP targets jobless aid after lackluster April gain

Happy Friday and welcome back to On The Money, where we’re thinking a lot about the lost grey whale. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL—Five takeaways on a surprisingly poor jobs report: Economists and politicians alike were shocked by the unexpectedly tepid April jobs report released Friday, which showed that the economy only added about a quarter the number of jobs most were expecting.

• The report found U.S. businesses added just 266,000 new jobs in April instead of the roughly 1 million that economists had projected.
• The figure would be solid in the midst of a strong economy, but was tremendously disappointing for a nation emerging from a pandemic in which 9.8 million people remain unemployed.

Here are five takeaways to make some sense of the report from The Hill’s Niv Elis.

• It’s going to be a bumpy ride: Any recovery from the depths of the coronavirus recessions was likely to be complicated given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.

• Child care is an issue: Even as overall employment rose, female employment dropped by 8,000, while female labor force participation dropped by 64,000.

• The fight over extra unemployment is on: Republicans and conservative groups have zeroed in on generous unemployment benefits as the culprit behind the slowdown.

• Democrats are doubling down on spending: Democrats said the report showed the schisms in the economy that they aimed to address through the infrastructure and family support plans proposed by President Biden.

• It’s just one report: While the April jobs report was universally seen as a disappointment, economists by and large agree that one month does not a trend make.

Read more on the April jobs report: 

• Bad jobs report amplifies GOP cries to end $300 benefits boost
• Stocks hit new records despite jobs letdown
• Chamber calls on states to scrap $300 boost to jobless benefits

LEADING THE DAY

IRS faces tax-return backlog as Tax Day approaches: The IRS is facing a backlog of tax returns as the May 17 filing deadline approaches, leading to millions of Americans experiencing delays in receiving their refunds.

The IRS said on a webpage updated Friday that as of April 30, it had 17.1 million unprocessed individual tax returns, most of which were filed this year.

• The unprocessed returns include those for which the IRS needs to make corrections to the amount claimed for the recovery rebate credit. 
• People can receive the credit if they didn’t receive their full stimulus payment amounts for the first two rounds of payments.
• The unprocessed returns also include returns that utilized a provision in a coronavirus relief law that allows people to calculate their amounts for the earned income tax credit and child tax credit based on their 2019 income rather than their 2020 income.

The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda explains here.

ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Tuesday:

• The Senate Banking Committee holds a confirmation hearing on the nominations of Adrianne Todman to be deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Nuria Fernandez to be Federal Transit Administrator at 10 a.m.
• A Senate Finance subcommittee holds a hearing on offshore tax evasion at 2:30 p.m.
• A Senate Commerce subcommittee holds a hearing on strengthening U.S. supply chains at 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday:

• U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on the Biden administration’s trade policy at 9:30 a.m.
• The Joint Economic Committee holds a hearing on the racial wealth gap at 10 a.m.
• The House Financial Services Committee holds a markup of pending legislation at 10 a.m.
• A House Ways and Means subcommittee holds a hearing on the tax code’s treatment of the wealthy at 2:30 p.m.

Thursday:

• U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on the Biden administration’s trade policy at 10 a.m.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that the department may run out of ways to prevent a default this summer if the president and Congress fail to reach a deal to raise the legal limit on the national debt.
• Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who often touts investing in cryptocurrencies, on Friday warned investors to “invest with caution.”
• A group of Google workers who provide child care services and education for other employees’ kids are circulating a petition urging the Silicon Valley giant to provide them a stipend to cover transportation costs.