Summary: The latest jobs report showed the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, a four-year high, while job growth slowed markedly. President Trump blamed federal workforce reductions and misstated the rate as 4.5%, claiming displaced federal workers were being hired into the private sector. BLS data show private-sector hiring in 2025 has been weak — particularly after April's "Liberation Day" tariffs — and do not support the administration's explanation.
Trump Takes (Awkward) Credit For Rising Unemployment — The Data Disagree
The latest U.S. jobs report delivered disappointing news: the unemployment rate rose to a four-year high and job creation slowed to levels not seen since the Great Recession (excluding the pandemic year of 2020). In an unusual turn, President Donald Trump acknowledged a role in the weaker labor market — but he did so with factual errors and a misleading explanation.
What Trump Said
"The only reason our Unemployment ticked up to 4.5% is because we are reducing the Government Workforce by numbers that have never been seen before. … I wish the Fake News would report the 4.5% correctly."
He repeated the claim later, saying, "I'm letting go of tremendous numbers of government workers. In fact, we reduced the federal workforce by 270,000 jobs. That is not to be mean, that is to get them off — and they are getting jobs in the private sector."
What The Data Show
Two key factual problems undermine the president's explanation. First, the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment rate for the most recent report was 4.6%, not 4.5%. Second, the rise in unemployment cannot be attributed solely to federal workforce reductions.
Using BLS data, a review of private-sector job growth by year since the Great Recession (excluding 2020) shows that private hiring in 2025 has been weak. The slowdown has been especially pronounced since April, after the administration announced so-called "Liberation Day" trade tariffs. In short, private-sector job growth has not surged enough to offset public-sector losses or to support the president's claim that displaced government workers are broadly finding new roles in private industry.
Why This Matters
Bragging about cutting hundreds of thousands of federal positions weeks before the holidays raises both ethical and practical concerns. Public-sector workers provide services that are not always replaced by private employers, and abrupt reductions can have real impacts on communities and on access to services.
Tightening The Takeaway
While administrations frequently seek defensible narratives for weak economic data, the available labor-market statistics do not support the claim that government layoffs explain the recent uptick in unemployment. The numbers point to broader weakness in private hiring in 2025, not a simple, offsetting shift of federal employees into private jobs.
Methodology note: Private-sector job growth referenced here is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data and excludes the anomalous 2020 pandemic year to provide a clearer multi-year comparison.
