National Republicans delighted in a weaker-than-expected jobs report on Friday, using it to mock President Joe Biden's economic agenda.

The economy added 209,000 jobs in June, a sizable gain in a tight labor market that nonetheless fell below expectations. Democrats celebrated the job growth as evidence that "Bidenomics," the White House's freshly coined moniker for its economic policies, is working.

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But Republicans argued the report was not as strong as Democrats claim, pointing to the 452,000 employees who shifted into part-time work last month. The National Republican Congressional Committee also noted 60,000 of the job gains came from the government sector, quipping that Biden "must be well on his way to hiring" the 87,000 IRS agents Republicans claim will be used to audit the middle class.

"Bidenomics just means more government bureaucrats propped up by Democrats' reckless spending that fuels the inflation crisis," Will Reinert, the national press secretary for the NRCC, said in a statement. "Meanwhile, people are forced to take part-time work just to put food on the table."

Other Republicans pointed out that jobs fell short of the 225,000 that economists had predicted for last month. The June figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, were the lowest since December 2020 and a sign that the economy is cooling.

Democrats, however, widely embraced the numbers. Despite the labor participation rate remaining below pre-pandemic levels, unemployment dropped to 3.6% in June, and the latest jobs report marks 30 straight months of growth under Biden.

"This is Bidenomics in action," the president said on Friday. "Our economy added more than 200,000 jobs last month for a total of 13.2 million jobs since I took office. That’s more jobs added in two and a half years than any president has ever created in a four-year term."

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Biden is campaigning for a second term on his economic record, a new tack that comes even as polling shows voters widely disapproving of his handling of the economy. Inflation, though stubbornly high, has fallen to around 4%, and Democrats are betting they can sell their investments in infrastructure as well as the drug pricing reforms of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Meanwhile, Republicans argue that very government spending is what fueled inflation in the first place.