While the stock market is certainly roaring under President Trump, the job numbers haven’t quite been as robust as he has claimed.
During his State of the Union address, the president said that “If we hadn’t reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witnessing this great economic success.”
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However, according to Trump’s own Department of Labor, the president’s job creation numbers do not stack up well compared to the Obama administration’s.
In its latest release of employment number, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s routine benchmark revisions showed that rather than adding 223,000 jobs per month in 2018, the economy had actually added 193,000 jobs per month.
Overall, the labor data shows that during Trump’s first three years in office, his administration has created 6.6 million new jobs, which is a full 1.5 million fewer jobs than the 8.1 million created during the last three years under President Obama.
Trump’s best year for job growth so far was 2018, in which the nation added 2.31 million jobs.
That’s also the year the GOP passed massive tax cuts, and it still didn’t best any of Obama’s last three years in office. And 2019, in which 2.1 million jobs were created, was in fact the slowest year for job growth since 2011.
“Based on the old numbers, it looked like Trump had inherited a steady economy but gave hiring a boost in 2018 through some deficit-fueled stimulus,” wrote Jordan Weissmann at Slate . “Based on the new numbers, it looks like he inherited a steadily growing economy and didn’t do much at all.”
The numbers are also well short of what Trump has boasted at rallies and during statements.
He has, notably and on several occasions, said that his daughter Ivanka has been responsible for creating 15 million jobs, which would be almost double the number of jobs his administration has created.
Rather, Ivanka Trump has led an initiative that has received non-binding pledges from companies to provide 14 million training opportunities over the next few years, the Associated Press reported.
What’s more, the economy could be doing much better than it currently is.
According to analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Trump’s trade war slowed a booming economy, particularly with regard to manufacturing and farming. The CBO’s data showed that the average family’s income suffered the equivalent of a 60% tax hike, losing $1,277.
The manufacturing sector contracted in 2019, going through a months-long recession . Meanwhile, farm bankruptcies rose precipitously despite a massive bailout package, more than double the Obama auto sector bailout.
It remains to be seen how much, if at all, the jobs data will affect Trump’s re-election bid.
White House spokesperson Judd Deere defended the president’s record, telling HuffPost that “President Obama presided over one of the slowest recoveries in history while President Trump has smashed expectations with 5 million more jobs grown than forecasted by the (Congressional Budget Office), a record-setting stock market, strong wage growth for blue collar workers, and historically low unemployment rates. Because of the strength of the Trump economy more and more Americans are coming off the sidelines to find work, many of whom were left out of the so-called Obama recovery.”
