WASHINGTON (AP) — The US job market has gone from health to lethargy, the first seven months before President Donald Trump’s first seven months at the White House.
Friday Employment Report It showed employers added just 22,000 jobs in August as unemployment rates reached up to 4.3%. Factory and construction companies run workers. The revision shows the economy lost 13,000 jobs in June. This is the first monthly loss since December 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
New data reveals widening gaps between A booming economy Trump has promised a poorer reality of what he has offered so far. The White House is proud to operate at a fierce speed, but now it calls for the American people to be patient.
“We’re going to win just like you’ve never seen,” Trump said Friday. “Wait until these factories built around the country start to open. We’ll see things happening in this country that no one expects.”
The plea of patience did little to comfort the Americans. This is because the economic issues that have been Trump’s strength for a decade have evolved into lasting weaknesses. Trump’s economic leader’s approval reached 56% in early 2020 during his first term, but that figure was 38% this July. According to the vote According to the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs.
Depending on the situation, Democrats say the matter begins and ends with him while others search for responsibility.
Trump on Friday argued that, despite doing so to the extent that he can set fire to higher inflation to the extent that Trump wants, the economy will add jobs if Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell cuts benchmark interest rates. Investors are hoping to cut interest rates by the Fed at their next meeting in September, partly because the number of jobs will weaken.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Trump’s tariff and freedom circle policies were violating the economy, and employment reports proved it.
“This is a fierce red light warning to the whole country that Donald Trump is taking his life from our economy,” Schumer said.
With many measures, Trump has dug himself into the hole in the economy as his performance has not yet come anywhere near his hype.
– Trump in 2024 suggested protecting “black jobs” by illegally deporting domestic immigrants. However, as the Trump administration engages in aggressive crackdowns on immigration, the black unemployment rate rose to 7.5%, the highest since October 2021.
– In an April tariff announcement, Trump said, “Employment and factories are back in our country and you’re seeing it happening already.” Since April, manufacturers have cut 42,000 jobs and builders have cut 8,000 reductions.
– In his inaugural address, Trump said that oil “liquid gold” would make the nation wealthy as he pivoted the economy into fossil fuels. However, the logging and mining sector, including oil and natural gas, has taken over 12,000 jobs since January. Gasoline prices are low, but in August the Energy Information Bureau estimated that production of crude oil, the source of wealth promised by Trump, averages 100,000 barrels next year.
– At the 2024 rally, Trump promised to “end” inflation on “first day” and halved electricity prices within 12 months. Consumer prices rose from an annual increase of 2.3% in April to 2.7% in July. Electric costs have risen by 4.6% so far this year.
The Trump White House claims that the economy is at the pinnacle of breakout growth, with new import taxes poised to raise hundreds of millions of dollars a year if possible. Bear the challenges of the court.
During a Thursday night dinner with executives and founders of companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Openai and Meta, Trump said the facilities built to develop artificial intelligence would provide “a number of jobs they have never seen before” at some point “a year from now.”
But Michael Strain, director of economic policy research at the American Enterprise Institute, pointed out that Trump’s promise that strong employment growth is ahead of it, contradicts his unfounded claim that recent employment data was fake to embarrass him. The charges led to the fire of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month after a massive downward revision of the employment report in July.
Strain said it’s reasonable for the administration to say a better time is coming, but doing so appears to undermine Trump’s claim that numbers are equipped.
“The president clearly stated that data is unreliable and that the weaknesses of the data are the product of anti-Trump manipulation,” Strain said. “If that’s true, what are we patient about?”
The White House argued that Friday’s employment report was an outlier in an otherwise good economy.
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the Atlanta Federal Reserve is hoping to grow by 3% per year this quarter.
Hassett said inflation is low, income growth is “solid,” and new investments in assets such as buildings and equipment will ultimately boost employment.
But Daniel Hornn, the deputy director of the Biden White House National Economic Council, said he had not seen evidence of rebounds in employment data for August.
“A rather wide base weakens,” Hornn said. “The decline in the three-month commodity production sector, such as construction and manufacturing, is particularly noticeable. There are already headwinds and tariffs may be exacerbating the challenges.”
Stephen Moore, Economic Fellows and president supporters of the conservative Heritage Foundation said the labor market is “undoubtedly softer.”
He said the economy is adapting to Trump’s shift in higher tariffs and immigration cuts that could reduce the pool of available workers.
“The problem going forward is not a shortage of jobs, but a shortage or worker,” Moore said. “In a way, that’s a good problem.”
However, political consultant and voter Frank Lunz took the paradoxical view that the employment report ultimately isn’t important to the political fate of Trump and his movement, as voters are more interested in inflation and affordability.
“That’s what the public sees, and that’s what the public cares about,” Luntz said. “Everyone who wants to work is mostly at work.”
From an election perspective, Trump still has about a year to show progress on improving affordability, Luntz said. Voters will typically ban their opinions on the economy by Labor Day before next year’s midterm elections.
In other words, Trump still has time.
“It’s still holding it,” he said. “The decision point will be Labor Day 2026.”
