The Book of Jobs

Last week there was a major news story – but it got almost no attention.  I kept waiting for extensive coverage…but no.  In fact, in some markets that I thought could cover it at length I didn’t see even reference it at all.  Which, given how significant I think the story is, sort of boggled me.

We know from earlier reporting that Trump’s jobs reports have been awful.  So awful that he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was the political equivalent of “Kill the Messenger.” 

In fact, it wasn’t just the last few months that were so terrible, but the new jobs created under Trump for the entire year.  In 2025, BLS reported that only 584,000 new jobs were created.  As low as that sounds, it transcends even pathetic when put in context.  And in context, during President Biden’s four years in office, 16.6 million new jobs were created.  That averages 4.15 million new jobs a year.  Averages.  Once again, that was 4.15 million new jobs every year under President Biden -- for four years in a row.  Compared to Trump’s 584,000 jobs last year.

But that's not the story. 

Because this brings us the major news last week – news that largely got little coverage, most especially for what the news was. Almost no coverage in some venues.  It should have been the headline story.

Fair Warning:  I'm going to repeat a lot of numbers.  But that's because (as you'll see) these are numbers that can't be repeated enough.

You see, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, without its former director who Trump fired, put out adjusted numbers for 2025.  And they not only adjusted last year’s numbers down – they ripped out the floor and did an entire new construction!!

Last week, BLS adjusted its new jobs number for 2025 down by…69%!!!  That’s 69% fewer new jobs created last year than the hideously dismal 584,000 that had been previously reported.  The actually-official number is now 181,000 new jobs – for the entire year!!!!!

So much for Trump's "great" (sic -- or sick) economy.

And now for the even more detailed perspective for full context about how monumentally disastrous this is.

Just 181,000 new jobs would have been horrific for President Biden if that number had been announced for any single month. Just imagine the MAGOP reaction to this.  Only 181,000 new jobs created in a month. The MAGOP would have grabbed the number – just 181,000 for a month -- and crushed it deep into the ground.  But this was 181,000 new jobs for a full year.

And doing basic math, that’s an average of only 15,000 new jobs a month!

And this is after Trump fired the BLS head because he didn't like the numbers.

Again, just imagine if this had been for President Biden.  But it wasn't.  It was for Trump.

More perspective:  Remember (as if you’ll forget at this point), under Trump, only 181,000 new jobs were created for the whole year. That yearly total is half the monthly average of new jobs created under President Biden!!! Every month for 48 months.

Literally.

We’ll do the easy math.  Joe Biden added 16.6 million jobs in 4 years. That’s 4.15 million new jobs a year.

And that is 346,000 a month. Each month. For 4 years.

Trump created 181,000 new jobs for the entire year.

Which, by the way, doing elementary school long division, is only 15,000 new jobs created under Trump per month.

For those without an abacus handy, 15,000 is fewer new jobs that 346,000.  Especially when those two numbers are repeated every month for a full year.  Or, in President Biden’s case, every month for four years.

Trump created 181,000 new jobs in 2025.  President Biden created 4.15 million new jobs every year for four years.

And Trump and MAGOPs are still trying to slam how supposedly terrible the Biden Economy was (despite The Economist magazine calling the Biden Economy the “Best in the World”) and crowing how supposedly tremendous the Trump “economy” is.

I think this was a huge story.  And yes, it did get reported here and there.  But “here and there” doesn’t even start to begin to do this story justice about the Trump economy.  I suspect most Americans don’t have a clue about this.  About how cringe-worthy horrific new jobs are under Trump.

Most prices remain high.  Consumer spending might be slightly up, but an unbalanced amount of that is largely being spent by the public on health care -- and augmented by spending by the wealthy, not by the middle class and lower.  Inflation might be stable, or even down by a whopping .1%.

But only 181,000 new jobs were created in the past year.  Just 15,000 a month.  (Compared to 346,000 a month.)  Whatever the prices, spending and inflation are, however much Trump and his desperate staff try to say what it is…if you’re only creating 15,000 new jobs a month – compared to 346,000 -- it is a ghastly picture of what the economy truly is.

That’s what “affordability” is about.

That’s what the news story is about.

I wish it got reported more.  But then, when the vast majority of Americans tell polls how badly they think the economy is and how bad Trump is doing about it, they don’t need it reported.  They know.  It’s really hard to hide.

But still, it would have been nice for it to be the major headline.  Yes, I know there are a ton of major news stories almost every day lately with Trump.  But…well, this was a pretty significant one.