Fox Business hosts were left scrambling for something nice to say after the release of the latest, dismal Jobs Report, but came up short.
“That 22,000 number—it’s a weaker-than-expected number, and these revisions are pretty brutal,” host Cheryl Casone said, as the team picked through the results.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest round of employment data, often used to take the temperature of the U.S. economy, on September 5 amid a turbulent time for the oft-cited and historically trusted agency.
Last month, Trump fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, after the release and subsequent revision of the data for July.
Now, with numbers worse still than those that cost McEntarfer her job—just 22,000 added in August—hosts of Fox Business, which tends to favor a positive outlook on Trumponomics, were left struggling to find a positive spin.
Federal employment numbers slipped by 15,000 jobs in August, bringing the total lost since January to 97,000. Manufacturing lost 12,000 jobs in August, The Guardian reported.
“It’s not so bad that we’re thinking recession, but it’s bad enough that we’re thinking maybe the Fed could be much more accommodative beyond September,” host Charles Payne said, also noting that manufacturing jobs, too, had returned “disappointing” numbers.
There was more disappointment when the labor participation level came in at 62.3 percent. Pundit Joanie Bily said, “We’re not seeing much movement in that number, which is disappointing and surprising to be honest with you… because we’re seeing that there is starting to be some increase in the weekly jobless claims.
“I’d like to look into that number and say, ‘Are we seeing more people say they want to participate in the workforce?’” She then continued, “We’ve lost jobs again in the professional business service sector, we’ve lost jobs in this report, in the temporary help sector, which is not a good sign, so there’s a lot of concern.”
The slowdown comes as the market reacts to Donald Trump’s drastic global tariff policy.
The latest data also provided updated figures showing that the U.S. lost 13,000 jobs in June, the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic battered the economy, and the unemployment rate for August rose to 4.3 percent, a new high since 2021.
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