Young businessman is holding sign Looking for a job on the white background.
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If you think Donald Trump overacted to July’s abysmal Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – he did, after all, fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer just hours after the repot came out – then this might be a good time to avoid him altogether. August’s report is much worse and pointing to more.
First monthly job losses in five years
With the monthly revisions, standard operating procedure by the way, July’s paltry number of 22,000 jobs created was overshadowed by June’s new status as the first month since December 2020 showing a loss. More dramatically, June 2025 and August 2010 were the only months since 2010 – 301 in all – showing a loss at all.
Major job market shift
Keep in mind, this is what the stewardship of the job market by Donald Trump looks like only seven months after he inherited it – the strongest in history – from Joe Biden. Trump’s numbers – 587,000 in eight months this year – were routinely surpassed by Biden in a … month. So the major shift – and it is tectonic – is that there are now more unemployed candidates – 7,384,000 – than there are open jobs in America – 7,181,000. It is now an employer’s market – and this trend is deepening.
Job loss in almost all sectors
For the last three months, only health care and social assistance have created jobs – and much fewer than expected. All other sectors either lost or remained stagnant. That’s nothing new; health care and social assistance have done that every month since I’ve been covering this beat for 28 years.
And then there’s the unemployment rate
By itself, the unemployment rate carries weight, but to a point, Now however, at 4.3%, it is the highest since October 2021, and in front of these other stats, one would think being in the cross hairs of Donald Trump is not a good place to be, especially if you’re on his council of economic advisors.