The White House on Tuesday sought to recast a dour November jobs report as a sign of economic progress, shrugging off an uptick in the nation’s unemployment rate and other potential hints of weakness now looming over the economy.
Top aides to President Trump instead argued that the data showed a nation still on track, and poised to grow substantially next year, as they forged ahead with their new campaign to assuage voters anxious about their finances.
“THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” the White House posted on social media.
In the first full jobs report since the federal shutdown, the government reported a rise in the jobless rate to 4.6 percent last month, up from 4.4 percent from the last gauge in September. The unemployment rate for November was the highest in four years.
The labor report also showed wage growth in November had slowed to a pace not seen since 2021, a period when the economy continued to grapple with the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Further evincing the stress on Americans, more people reported that they were working part time, despite wanting to work full time, or that they wanted a job yet weren’t looking for one.
On Tuesday, the White House ignored or dismissed many of those findings, insisting that the economy remains strong under Mr. Trump’s watch. Its tone reflected the president’s own attitude, at a moment when polls increasingly show that voters are skeptical of his agenda and blame his administration for some of the troubles they now face. In recent days, Mr. Trump has sought to mount a new messaging campaign to recast his policies, with a speech planned in North Carolina this week.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, attributed the uptick in the nation’s unemployment rate partly to the fact that more workers are now seeking jobs, driving up the rate, which captures people looking for work.
Appearing on CNBC, he said that private-sector employment had been a source of strength. Overall, U.S. employers added 64,000 jobs in November, reversing a decline from October, a two-month period that saw the federal government shed 168,000 jobs.
“I think that, from the private sector point of view, it’s just about what we’ve been getting all year — it’s solid upward trajectory,” he said.
The comments from Mr. Hassett — one of the candidates that Mr. Trump is considering as his next pick to lead the Federal Reserve — came as the administration unfurled a more detailed counterargument on social media.
In a series of unsigned posts, the White House Council of Economic Advisers heralded only select data points from the jobs report, as it sought to portray Mr. Trump’s policies as a success. It cheered the uptick in private-sector jobs, and the fact that more Americans “continue to come off the sidelines and re-enter the labor force.”
But the White House did not acknowledge that the report on Tuesday revised down the number of jobs initially believed to have been added in August or September. Nor did the administration comment on the difficulty that some workers had reported this fall in finding steady full-time employment. That includes Black workers, for whom the unemployment rate reached 8.3 percent, up two percentage points from the beginning of the year, the data show.
The White House further touted the fact that “investment is booming,” citing the fact that “firms are investing confidently in Trump’s economy.” The claim echoed the president’s view that his policies, particularly his tariffs and tax cuts, helped to spur more domestic production.
Construction jobs did rise by about 28,000 in November, the data show, but manufacturing jobs fell by about 5,000 and jobs in transportation and warehousing declined by more than 17,000. Mr. Hassett touted the “huge” construction numbers, in particular, as a sign of a forthcoming economic boom, adding that he is “bullish” that investments will yield manufacturing jobs later.
And the Trump administration also argued that “average private sector weekly earnings are on track to rise to 4.2%” during Mr. Trump’s first year. In fact, the government found that wage growth slowed to 3.5 percent in November. The figure suggested that many Americans may not feel the benefit of bigger paychecks at a moment when prices remain stubbornly high.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
The post White House Shrugs Off Rise in Unemployment Rate appeared first on New York Times.
