US President Joe Biden took shots at his likely 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, on Monday in a Labour Day speech aimed at shoring up support in a state he needs to win next year to retain the White House.

A self-described champion of labour unions, Biden addressed union workers in Philadelphia as he sought to explain his economic policies to a public worried about the economy, despite easing inflation and low unemployment levels.

“It wasn’t that long ago we were losing jobs in this country,” Biden said ahead of a parade marking the US Labour Day holiday. “In fact, the guy who held this job before me was just one of two presidents in history who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected.”

Economic issues are likely to play a critical role in the 2024 presidential race, a likely rematch between Biden and Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that the economy, unemployment and jobs remained Americans’ top concern. A full 60 per cent of Americans, including one in three Democrats, said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation, according to the poll.

Republicans say that Democratic policies helped spark the rise in prices, making Americans pay more for rent, groceries and petrol under Biden’s watch. The Fed has raised rates by 5.25 percentage points since March 2022 and the 30-year mortgage rate now stands above 7 per cent.

Biden played up his record of job creation during his administration and took a dig at Trump, saying jobs were being shipped to China under the Republican President and Trump’s presidency saw jobs shrink in America. Some of the workers shouted “Four more years” as the President came to the stage.