Donald Trump Just Delivered The Worst Three Months Of Job Growth Since The Pandemic

In the final six months of Joe Biden’s presidency, the U.S. economy added about twice as many jobs as it did in the first six months of Donald Trump’s current term. Between August 2024 and January 2025, around 1.05 million jobs were created, averaging about 175,000 per month. But from February to July 2025, with Trump back in office, only about 486,000 jobs were added—an average of just 81,000 per month. May, June, and July in particular had some of the weakest job growth since the pandemic.

These numbers seemed to anger Trump, who responded by demanding the firing of a government worker in charge of labor statistics. He accused her, without offering any proof, of making up data to make Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris look good while making him look bad. On social media, he said he was replacing her with someone more “competent” and also attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates. Trump claimed the economy is doing well under his leadership, despite what the data shows.

Trump has long called himself a successful businessman and has said Biden mishandled the economy. He focused heavily on high inflation during his campaign, which had been a major issue following the COVID-19 pandemic. But by the time Trump returned to office, inflation had already been going down for more than a year. In Biden’s last six months, inflation averaged 2.7%. Under Trump so far, it has averaged 2.5%, but that number has started to rise again—partly because of the tariffs he reintroduced as part of his trade policies.

Unemployment rose slightly from June to July, now at 4.2%, which is the same rate as July of the previous year. While job growth has slowed, the White House pointed out that at least jobs are still being created, and the economy isn’t losing them. They also noted that wages have gone up and the private sector is still expanding.

However, Trump’s policies—especially tariffs on imports—might actually be hurting the economy more than helping. Economists and business owners have warned that these tariffs raise prices and slow down hiring and overall growth. Still, Trump and his press team continue to defend the tariffs, saying they bring in billions in revenue and help the country.

Trump also blamed Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, for not cutting interest rates, saying it’s hurting economic growth. The Fed raised rates during Biden’s term to fight high inflation and has kept them high because of concerns that Trump’s tariffs could push inflation back up. Higher interest rates typically slow down economic activity because they make it more expensive to borrow money.

A new jobs report showed that only 73,000 jobs were added in April, which was less than expected. What made matters worse were big downward revisions to job numbers from May and June—together, those two months were adjusted down by 258,000 jobs. These monthly job numbers are often updated later as more complete information becomes available. The government agency responsible for these figures said the revisions were unusually large, but didn’t explain why.

Economist Dean Baker commented that while such large revisions can change how we view the economy, they aren’t unheard of. He joked that the timing might distract people from other news stories, like the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

In summary, while Trump claims the economy is booming, recent data suggests otherwise. Job growth has slowed significantly compared to Biden’s final months in office, inflation is starting to rise again due to tariffs, and Trump is blaming officials and institutions for numbers he doesn’t like rather than addressing the underlying issues.