Jobs Numbers Hit Record Low as Trump’s Economy Craters
Donald Trump’s so-called “gilded age” is seriously hurting American workers, according to the latest jobs report.
The US economy created only 50,000 jobs in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, underperforming expectations of Wall Street. December’s meager job openings capped total job creation in 2025 at about 584,000 total jobs, making it the worst hiring year since the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the U.S. economy. The year 2025 also saw the lowest annual employment growth since 2003.
Since Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Liberation Day, job growth has stopped abruptly, and may even be declining, according to economist Justin Wolfers.
Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long underlines that the bulk of last year’s hiring took place in April, when 158,000 jobs were added to the economy.
The worst month for job creation was October, when the market lost a staggering 173,000 (revised upward in the last release, from 105,000) as federal workers ousted by Elon Musk’s DOGE left their government jobs. November’s earnings were also revised down, from 64,000 to just 56,000.
At the same time, the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.4 percent, after reaching its highest rate in four years. The unemployment rate was up overall from 4% in January 2025.
The first year of Trump’s so-called “golden age” was difficult. In 2025, the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons increased by 980,000, the number of long-term unemployed by 397,000 and the number of people inactive but seeking employment by 684,000.
