Donald Trump’s job market is in the gutter: Americans are struggling to find good-paying jobs or resorting to taking on multiple roles just to make ends meet as mass layoffs mount. Only 28% of American workers believe it is a good time to find a quality job.
New data last week revealed that private employers in July had the slowest pace of job creation since January — and the July jobs report similarly showed the economy shed 23,000 jobs. Over the last few months, the economy has created about 200,000 fewer jobs than expected.
Small businesses have been particularly hit hard in Trump’s disastrous job market, as the smallest U.S. businesses lost jobs for 5 straight months and are down by more than 70,000 so far this year.
Overall, last year was the worst year for job creation outside of a recession in more than 20 years, as the economy added less than 200,000 jobs throughout the entire year. Despite Trump’s promise to create a “manufacturing boom,” his reckless tariffs have decimated the manufacturing sector, as the industry lost 108,000 jobs during the first year of Trump’s second term.
The number of job openings also plummeted by nearly one million last year, and Americans’ likelihood of receiving a new job offer in the coming months fell to the lowest level in five years. Meanwhile, workers’ satisfaction with wages and promotion opportunities fell to the lowest level on record, as high prices continue to swallow up earnings and job opportunities remain scarce. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate recently dropped to its lowest level in 50 years outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump himself has previously warned that a drop in the labor force participation rate could indicate an impending recession.
