President Biden declared Friday a “historic day” for the county’s economic recovery, after the federal government’s December jobs report that showed the U.S. economy last month added only about half of the roughly 422,000 jobs expected by Wall Street.

“I think this is a historic day for our economic recovery,” the president said from the White House a few hours after the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy in December added 199,000 new jobs.

Biden, roughly one year in the White House and running the country roughly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, instead focused on the December unemployment number decreasing to 3.9%, compared to 4.2% for November.