{"id":582003,"date":"2026-04-04T16:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582003\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:08:19","slug":"the-april-jobs-report-looks-good-but-theres-rot-underneath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582003\/","title":{"rendered":"The April jobs report looks good — but there’s rot underneath"},"content":{"rendered":"

To hear Donald Trump tell the story, you would think the United States economy is booming. He\u2019s variously claimed his administration has resulted in \u201cthe greatest economy in the history of our country,\u201d or, even, \u201cin the history of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t true before he started his unnecessary \u2013 and illegal \u2013 war with Iran, and it\u2019s even less true now.<\/p>\n

Yes, the April jobs report released Friday showed that the U.S. added 178,000 jobs last month, well above expectations. But over the last six months, job growth has averaged just 89,000 per month \u2013 weak sauce by any measure. As usual during Trump 2.0, the health care industry led the way with 76,000 jobs added (thanks in part to the resolution of a strike at Kaiser Permanente). Other industries lagged: while manufacturing employment grew 12,000, there are still 82,000 fewer such jobs<\/a> than when Trump returned to the White House<\/a>, And a large part of the reason the overall unemployment rate fell to 4.3% is because 400,000 people exited the workforce entirely.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Overall, the job market is all but frozen, with little in the way of hiring or turnover. And for recent college graduates, it\u2019s even worse, which might help explain Trump\u2019s faltering support among this cohort. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a>, more than 40 percent of college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 hold jobs that typically don\u2019t require a college degree. That high a share is usually seen only during economic downturns and their immediate aftermath, and is comparable to rates seen in the aftermath of the Great Recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s largely incoherent tariff policy has not only failed to restore American manufacturing, it has increased costs for Americans<\/a> on everything from food to construction equipment. Adding insult to injury: there is some evidence, according to the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative<\/a>, big corporations are taking advantage of all the confusion to impose inflationary price hikes in order to boost their own profits.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHelaine Olen\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHelaine R. Olen is the author of “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry” and a co-author of “The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated.” She has been a columnist for The Washington Post and Slate, and her work has appeared in numerous other publications, including The New York Times and The Atlantic. She is managing editor of the American Economic Liberties Project.\t\t<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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