Trump Hit With Worse Than Predicted Disastrous Jobs Report
A brutal revision to October’s figures solidifies 2025 as a staggeringly bad year.
President Donald Trump has been hit with a disastrous jobs report to kick off the new year.
Employers added 50,000 jobs last month, coming in below economists’ expectations, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The most damning data to emerge Friday was a revision to October’s already-poor job figures, revealing that the economy shed 68,000 more jobs than previously reported, bringing the total to a staggering 173,000 non-farm jobs lost.

Job growth has slowed significantly under President Donald Trump.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Even analysts on Fox Business conceded those figures are not what the president wanted.
Maria Bartiromo, a Trump-friendly host, bluntly reacted to the figures: “The jobs numbers are weaker than expected.”
Get the best of The Beast delivered right to your inbox
By clicking “SUBSCRIBE” you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Dow Jones’ estimate for December was that the economy would add 73,000 jobs. Figures for October and November 2025 were each revised downward from initial reports, so December may eventually face a similar fate.

Trump told reporters that he is interviewing candidates to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Data from the BLS show that President Joe Biden oversaw significantly more job growth in his final full year in office than in the first 11-and-a-half months of MAGA 2.0. The economy added an average of 168,000 jobs per month in 2024, compared with 49,000 per month in 2025.
A payroll gain of 584,000 for 2025 makes it the worst year outside of a recession since 2003, the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, Heather Long, told CNBC. She said the Trump economy is boosting the wealthy, but not the working class.

Kevin Hassett has said he would cut interest rates if he becomes Fed chair, as Donald Trump has long requested.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“It’s fair to say that 2025 was a hiring recession in the United States,” she said. “The United States is experiencing a jobless boom where growth is strong, but hiring is not. It’s a great scenario for Wall Street, but an uneasy feeling on Main Street.”
The underperforming report comes as Trump weighs whom he will nominate as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. He told The New York Times that he has already made a decision, but stopped short of naming his pick.

Kevin Hassett, 63, is rumored to be the favorite to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/Oversight committee.
Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, is rumored to be the favorite. Asked if Hasset was his pick, Trump told the Times, “I don’t want to say,” but described him as “certainly one of the people that I like.”
Trump, 79, is known to follow the advice of the last person who spoke to him, so it is impossible to know who he will ultimately choose. Hassett has largely been a MAGA mouthpiece, but he has occasionally criticized the president’s economic plans.
Hassett, 63, has a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where Trump attended business school. He said in December that Trump’s wish to roll out $2,000-a-person tariff refunds to Americans “is a mess” and “would be very complicated,” but has otherwise worked as a “Trump Propagandist,” reports The Atlantic.
Unlock a year of full access to The Looker and The Daily Beast for $35.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Looker and The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.
Sign in
Login dialog




ADVERTISEMENT
Sign in or create an account
Login dialog
Loading comments…
ADVERTISEMENT