Trump Overlooks Crucial Detail in Bragging About Jobs Report

For all of the president’s braggadocio about the economy, a key detail in last month’s jobs report paints a bitter picture for America’s market.

The June jobs report came with droves of good news: the unemployment rate had fallen to 4.1 percent, the lowest since February, and the Trump administration touted that the market had added 147,000 new jobs. But within the folds of the expansive report was a worrying statistic: The lowered rate was largely due to a growing cohort of Americans who either weren’t working or looking for work.

The number of Americans who had not looked for a job in the last month rose by 234,000 to 1.8 million, according to the report.

And the vaunted job gains—which were primarily enjoyed by the health care sector, public education, and local government—weren’t as major when assessed from another angle.

“The household survey, which is used to calculate the unemployment rate, showed a smaller employment gain of just 93,000,” reported CNBC.

The report indicated other weaknesses in the market, including concentrated job gains in a handful of sectors, slowing wage growth, and lagging participation, which dropped to its lowest level (62.3 percent) since 2022.

The positive numbers did offer a slight boon to the stock market, with the S&P 500 blooming in reaction to the report, but analysts were wary to overhype the gains.

“The U.S. job market continues to largely stand tall and sturdy, even as headwinds mount—but it may be a tent increasingly held up by fewer poles,” Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote Thursday. “The headline job gains and surprising dip in unemployment are undoubtedly good news, but for job seekers outside of healthcare & social assistance, local government, and public education, the gains will likely ring hollow.”

“This is not a bad report, but it might not be as solid as it seems on the surface,” Stahle noted.