A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday showed a job market slowdown for the second month in a row, following a poor report in July that led President Donald Trump to fire the head of the agency.
The U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to data from the report. The nation’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.3%, while remaining at historic lows. The BLS previously reported there were 79,000 jobs added in July.
The new report also included a revision that showed a significant loss of jobs in June. According to the report, the U.S. labor market lost 13,000 jobs that month, whereas a previous version of the report showed a gain of 14,000 jobs. It was the first month of job losses since December 2020.
Trump’s advisers and allies tried to spin the data.
Kevin Hassett, director of Trump’s National Economic Council, did not like what he saw in the report.
“This jobs report was certainly a little bit of a disappointment,” Hassett said in a CNBC interview. In a second interview with Fox News, Hassett shifted blame to the BLS, criticizing their “bad response rates” on job number revisions.
“We expect this number will be revised up,” Hassett said.
When asked about the “weakening job market” on Fox News, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer acknowledged the report findings, but said the data was still “positive.”
“Well, 22,000 jobs, it underperformed just a bit, but it’s still in the positive,” adding that job growth “will take some time.”
On Democratic side, the report was met with condemnation of Trump’s economic policies.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said Trump “screwed up” the U.S. job market, in a statement released on Friday.
“Donald Trump inherited an economy built on years of steady job growth. In just seven months, he’s managed to screw it up — just like he’s screwed up everything else in his life,” he said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., blasted the findings, saying the American people “deserve better.”
“Electricity costs are up, job creation is down and Republicans are driving the economy toward a recession,” Jeffries said in a post on X.
The bleak jobs report comes a month after Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer over poor July numbers. Trump alleged without evidence that McEntarfer made a “major mistake” with her report, and accused her of “faking” job numbers that run contrary to Trump’s “golden age” of the American economy.
