jobs

Trump's favorite 3-word claim dismantled in scathing fact-check

MS NOW data journalist Philip Bump says President Donald Trump’s claims of the U.S. being "the hottest country" so far only pertains to its climate. Economically, the U.S. is trailing behind its global competition.

“President Donald Trump, never restrained about his use of hyperbole, has settled on a succinct summary of the first year of his second term," said Bump, citing a Dec. 11 declaration that international leaders personally told him we’re the hottest, and his repeat of the claim during his prime-time address on Dec. 17.

“We’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said into the camera. “And that’s said by every single leader that I’ve spoken to over the last five months.”

The numbers don’t support his claim in terms of the nation’s stock prices, however. The Dow Jones Industrial Average may have hit a new high, the 52nd of the year, said Bump, but several foreign indexes — including many in Asia — have outperformed the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Even the foreign indexes hammered by Trump’s announcement of April tariffs have not only rebounded, but some have surpassed the U.S. indexes “despite having fallen just as far after Jan. 20,” said Bump.

In addition, Bump said the U.S. is also not the hottest on GDP growth, with India’s third-quarter increase almost double that of the U.S.. India also beat out the U.S. on job growth, with job growth in the U.S. mostly flat since April.

This is odd, said Bump because U.S. indexes don’t usually trail foreign ones during Year Ones.

And Trump’s market doesn’t even compare to that of many recent presidents’ first years, when added up.

“Year Ones have outperformed 2025, including Trump’s first Year One, in 2017,” said Bump. “And however much Trump dislikes hearing it, there was more stock market growth by Christmas in the first year of Joe Biden’s administration than recorded during Trump’s presidency this year.”

What’s more, Bump said during four of the seven presidential Year Ones since 2001, the average of U.S. indexes outperformed the average of the seven international indexes, which is something Trump cannot claim.

“There is, however, one measure by which the U.S. is inarguably among the hottest countries in the world: actual temperature,” Bump added. “Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that North America just experienced its second-warmest autumn on record and its hottest November.”

Read Bump's full MS NOW column at this link.

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Trump is pointlessly trying to resurrect jobs that 'aren't coming back': Washington Post

Politicians and President Donald Trump sell the vision of a manufacturing renaissance, but the Washington Post Editorial Board argues their vision of “massive factories employing thousands of people” are not possible in real-life America.

“Some places have had manufacturing renaissances,” reports the Post, citing its coverage of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with an old manufacturing city allegedly sputtering “back to life,” according to the headline.

Once the home of Remington and divisions of General Electric, which filed for bankruptcy in 1991, the area is now serving vocational education programs that are helping workers without college degrees cultivate welding and technician skills, which almost guarantee careers.

It was a “feel-good story politicians want to hear,” writes the Post, though the paper observed that the hard truth of re-emerging factory jobs “barely registered” in the overall data on Bridgeport’s economy. Manufacturing employment in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury metropolitan statistical area saw only “a small bump” and remains near 30-year lows, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Real manufacturing output in the Bridgeport metro area has been rising but is also quite low compared to before the Great Recession, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis,” the Post reports. “The turnaround in the past few years is that manufacturing is no longer a drag on Bridgeport’s GDP growth, as it was during most years since the Great Recession. It flipped positive in 2021” — But is has remained “barely above zero” since then.

The problem, according the Post, is that the new jobs “are relatively few in number,” however high in compensation.

“These newer, successful manufacturing companies in Bridgeport don’t have assembly lines with workers performing repetitive tasks. They have high-skilled workers meeting exacting specifications for a relatively small number of picky customers,” said the Post. “That’s what most American manufacturing firms look like today. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. manufacturing firms employ fewer than 500 people, and 93 percent employ fewer than 100, according to 2022 data.”

The “manufacturing” jobs actually employ more robots than anything, per the Post's editorial. Automation makes them extremely productive, and more productive workers are paid more, but it still means fewer people work in manufacturing than in the past.

“Pro-manufacturing politicians face a choice,” says the Post. “They can applaud the success of places like Bridgeport while conceding that manufacturing isn’t a jobs juggernaut. Or they can continue to yearn for the mass-production plants of yesteryear, which aren’t coming back. Even if they did, they would yield worse, lower-paying jobs than the high-tech manufacturing plants of today.”

Read the Post's editorial at this link.

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Economist shreds Trump's latest excuse for rising unemployment

President Donald Trump is now arguing that the uptick in the national unemployment rate is simply a byproduct of him enacting his agenda. One highly regarded economist is crying foul.

On Friday, Trump posted to his Truth Social account that the 4.6 percent unemployment rate — which is the highest in four years — could be attributed to his hollowing out of government agencies. He boasted that his administration is "reducing the Government Workforce by numbers that have never been seen before."

"100% OF OUR NEW JOBS ARE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR! I could reduce Unemployment to 2% overnight by just hiring people into the Federal Government, even though those Jobs are not necessary," Trump wrote in his signature style of oddly placed capital letters. "I wish the Fake News would report the 4.5% correctly. What I am doing is the only way to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Trump also insisted during a recent White House event that the higher unemployment rate still "sounds positive" and is "quite a low number." He added that "government jobs are way down."

However, economist Claudia Sahm – who is the namesake of the Sahm Rule used to predict economic recessions — wrote on her X account that she wanted to "raise a few issues with" Trump's claim. She cited figures from the Federal Reserve showing that the number of jobless workers between Trump's inauguration and November of 2025 had increased well beyond the number of federal workers who had been fired.

"There are 982,000 more unemployed people in Nov 2025 than in Jan 2025," Sahm wrote. "There are 271,000 fewer federal government employees."

"982,000 [is greater than] 271,000. More than 3 times more unemployed," she added.

As CBS News reported this week, the uptick in the unemployment rate can be largely attributed to the manufacturing and hospitality sectors slowing down hiring. Heather Long, who is the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told the outlet that Trump's policies have directly led to the higher unemployment rate, along with artificial intelligence replacing many entry-level white-collar workers.

"Businesses are not hiring as they adjust to tariffs, uncertain conditions and AI," Long said. "The result is about 700,000 more unemployed Americans than there were a year ago."

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Karoline Leavitt's 'whopper' about a 'strong' job market shredded in blistering fact-check

MS NOW analyst Steve Benen said the Trump administration’s “strong” jobs report suggests they don’t know what “strong” means.

“White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s credibility couldn’t get much worse,” Benen wrote on Wednesday, pointing to Leavitt’s false claim that President Donald Trump created the slogan “drill, baby, drill and that “many states” are now seeing gas prices below $2 per gallon.

“But the whopper that stood out for me came earlier in the day, when she issued a written statement about the latest monthly jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” said Benen.

“The strong jobs report shows how President Trump is fixing the damage caused by Joe Biden and creating a strong, America First economy in record time,” Leavitt said, which prompted Benen to say “there may be some confusion about what ‘strong’ means.”

“The latest jobs report, released Tuesday morning, was quite awful,” Benen argued. “The U.S. unemployment rate has reached its highest level in more than four years, and job growth has slowed to a level that could charitably be described as anemic.”

In fact, a chart showing month-to-month changes to the job market since November 2020, when Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, reveals significant growth out of the red. The Biden administration, comparatively, swam in a sea of high job growth throughout his four years — followed by a quick dip back into a Trump-style low-growth red zone as Trump returned to office in January of 2025.

“Indeed, the closer one looks, the worse the American job market appears,” said Benen. “According to the latest data, the economy actually lost jobs in June, August and October. When was the last time the U.S. economy had a net job loss three times in six months? Late 2009 into early 2010, when the job market was still trying to recover from the Great Recession.”

Worse, when Trump announced his Liberation Day trade tariffs in April, the nation had created a total of 119,000 jobs, per month, since he entered office, Benen said. But last year — when Trump said the economy was awful — the U.S. job market averaged nearly 168,000 jobs per month. This compares to Trump’s average 17,000 jobs per month.

“In fact, we remain very much on track to see the worst year for job creation since the Great Recession (excluding the massive losses associated with the pandemic in 2020),” said Benen. “If the president’s team looked at this data and saw a ‘strong’ jobs report, that might help explain why Trump is failing so spectacularly: The White House doesn’t even know what success looks like.”

Read the MS NOW report at this link.

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'Completely stagnated': Experts say 'extraordinary low' jobs numbers 'ominous' for economy

Economic experts are sounding alarms over the latest jobs report, showing the Trump economy added just 22,000 jobs in August — far below expectations of 75,000. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.3 percent, its highest level since October 2021, near the height of COVID.

“Another WEAK jobs report,” wrote Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal.

“The August jobs report shows the job market is going from frozen to cracking,” Long added. “The only thing keeping this from being a 5-alarm fire is the fact that the labor force grew by +436,000 people. That’s a surprise, especially given immigrants are leaving the U.S. labor force.”

Long also noted that the June report was revised down, to a loss of 13,000 jobs.

“Jobs growth remained extraordinarily low in August,” noted Steven Rattner, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” economic analyst and chairman of a prominent investment firm.

“The job market continues to slow, and it’s worrying. We’re (just) keeping our head above water (for now),” warned professor of economics Justin Wolfers, a popular cable news guest.

“I know the focus today is on ‘the numbers.’ But lemme share a feeling: I’m worried,” Wolfers added. “The economy was in a good place in late 2024. That’s no longer true. And the trajectory is, at a minimum, concerning. That’s millions of peoples lives, and millions of stories of pain.”

Veteran finance reporter Ron Insana noted that “the composition of the newly unemployed appears to be policy-driven. Government, trade services and manufacturing. Healthcare is keeping the number above water. Those gov’t workers getting severance aren’t yet counted as jobless. That changes next month!”

Long issued an additional warning.

“The US economy lost -13,000 jobs in June –>The first negative month since December 2020 (!) There’s barely been any job growth in the past 4 months. Almost all the jobs added are in healthcare. Without healthcare, job growth would be NEGATIVE in the past few months.”

Economics writer Joey Politano observed that “US blue-collar job growth has completely stagnated, hitting the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic—manufacturing is currently losing jobs at a rapid pace, and growth in construction/transportation has slowed to a crawl.”

He added, “the labor market is in the worst place since the pandemic.”

Hinting at the upcoming change in leadership at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, professor of economics Howard Forman wrote: “If this is, indeed, a more reliable report, it remains ominous.”

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'Can anyone spell recession?' Trump slammed as jobs report stuns economists

Payrolls processing firm ADP reported private sector hiring contracted unexpectedly in June, with private payrolls losing 33,000 jobs.

The news came as a surprise because economists polled by Dow Jones in the weeks ahead of the ADP report had forecast an increase of 100,000 jobs for the month, despite growth in May being revised to just 29,000 jobs rather than 37,000.

The bulk of job losses happened in professional and business services and health and education, according to ADP, with the Midwest and Western regions seeing the strongest contractions.

Social media exploded at the news, partially because economists had predicted a more stable and robust economy weathering the impact of President Donald Trump’s incessant tariff threats.

“Can anyone spell RECESSION?” posted New York legislator Jon Cooper.

“This must be a huge problem for Joe Biden, right?” quipped YouTube host David Pakman, referring to Trump’s habit of blaming his predecessor for economic bumps in Trump’s economy.

Pakman pointed out that the job losses amounted to the first “in over two years,” while political analyst Marco Frieri demanded: “Is that what they call ‘Making America Great Again’?”

On the same day of the ADP report, Chamber of Progress Director Tahra Hoops noted Trump congratulating himself on the strong U.S. economy.

“THIS GROWTH has already begun at levels never seen before,” Trump declared on Truth Social, which prompted Hoops to wonder what world Trump was inhabiting.

“He lives in an alternate universe,” Hoops posted. “… It's clear employers are growing weary over Trump tariff impacts and just the continuing levels of uncertainty,” Hoops added.

Public Notice writer Aaron Rupar, meanwhile, noticed Trump’s allies at Fox news initially playing down or ignoring the bad news.

“[Entertainer] Maria Bartiromo was just on Fox News to discuss economic news, but new data showing the private sector losing jobs last month didn't come up,” Rupar posted. “Instead, she and [entertainer] Dana Perino discussed Waffle House.”

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‘They’re scared’: Auto workers say tariffs already killing jobs

Last month, Mack Trucks announced it would be laying off about 10 percent of its unionized workers at its Lehigh Valley, Penn., plant. Company officials blamed tariffs and the economic uncertainty they’ve caused as the reason.

“We were very surprised,” Mack Trucks employee and UAW Local 677 District 1 Committeeperson Dan Hand told Vox. “We have people that just started working on the shop floor Monday of last week. … They’re scared.”

The layoffs come one year after Mack Trucks’ parent company, Volvo, announced it was building a massive new truck plant in Mexico. The company claims it only planned to supplement its American workforce, not replace it, but union local UAW 577 slammed Mack’s decision and even endorsed tariffs as a tool to fight offshoring before President Donald Trump announced tariffs in earnest this year.

However, tariffs still get mixed reviews from employees even as the plant shuts down a tenth of its workforce. Plant employee John Taniser told Vox the short-term pain is worth it for long-term change.

“It could be a year. It could be two years. But what we’re looking for is a path forward to thrive and not just sustain and exist,” said Taniser, a production line worker who voted for Trump in 2024.

Hand, meanwhile, voted for Trump in 2016, but then turned on him because of his treatment of organized labor in his first term. "It doesn’t seem like there’s a good game plan [at the White House],” said Hand

Economists say manufacturing will never be what it was in the U.S. because as nations get richer, their manufacturing jobs get replaced with service sector jobs. Vox reports the largest employers in the county are now hospitals and Amazon warehouses. And even the manufacturing that remains are more technology oriented requiring fewer human workers.

Read the full story at Vox.

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'New Tiffany Trump': Marco Rubio mocked after being given yet another White House role

The New York Times reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now interim national security adviser to President Donald Trump, in addition to serving as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration.

“Like a Christmas tree bedecked with shiny ornaments of every shape and size, Marco Rubio, 53, has accumulated four titles starting with his confirmation as secretary of state on Jan. 20, the same day that Mr. Trump took his oath of office,” The Times reported. However, X had considerably more responses.

“Times are so tough in the Trump economy that Marco Rubio needs to hold three jobs (Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, USAID administrator) just to get by,” wrote Matthew Yglasias, a writer for the American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Slate.

“LMAO! Think you're busy? Try being MARCO RUBIO! Who is now: - U.S. Secretary of State - Acting U.S. National Security Advisor - Acting Archivist of the U.S. - Acting Administrator of USAID,” wrote Florida Voice Assistant News Director Eric Daugherty.

Bloomberg News anchor and correspondent David Gura appeared more impressed.

“Marco Rubio is now, simultaneously, secretary of state, interim national security adviser, acting administrator of USAID, and acting archivist of the United States,” Uhdeb wrote, seemingly without sarcasm.

Still other personalities, like Semafor Congressional Bureau Chief Burgess Everett were content to tick down Rubio’s expanding list of titles, while Democratic Party strategist Adam Parkhomenko described the multi-hat-wearing Rubio as “a month away from being New Tiffany Trump.”

Self-made X-platform comedians also had their way, with one poster declaring, “In addition to his duties as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, National Archivist and ASID Administrator, Marco Rubio will also now be a judge on American Idol.

Read the full New York Times article here.

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