White House economist defends job numbers amid July job losses
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The Labor Department reported a loss of 23,000 jobs in July, while the White House's top economist offered a different interpretation of the data.
The U.S. Labor Department said the economy shed 23,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate slipped to 4.1 percent as labor-force participation declined. The job loss marked the sixth month of negative job growth since President Donald Trump returned to office, contrasting with no months of net job loss during the Biden and Obama administrations.
Since Trump took office in January 2021, the economy has added about 542,000 jobs, far fewer than the roughly 2.7 million jobs added in the 19 months before his term. Excluding the pandemic year, analysts note that the first year of Trump’s second term was the weakest for job creation since the Great Recession.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News that when certain sectors are excluded, the net change would be about 100,000 jobs. Two days later, on CNN’s "State of the Union," he said, "If you look at the overall economy, then things are really, really booming."
The statements were met with questions from CNN host Jake Tapper, who cited the more than 2 million jobs added during the last 18 months of the Biden administration. Hassett responded that his figure for job creation under President Trump since Jan. 20 was about 880,000 jobs, a number that does not align with publicly released data.
President Trump has previously described the U.S. economy as "the greatest" and suggested that public opinion polls should show even higher approval. Critics argue that the administration’s characterizations conflict with recent labor market trends and public sentiment.