This is not the jobs report Trump wants to seepublished at 13:53 British Summer Time
13:53 BST
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Image source, Getty Images
Another
month of lower-than-expected US job growth provides just the latest flashing
red light for the US economy. That’s bad news for Donald Trump, even if there
is a very clear political upside for him in the short term.
First, the
good news for the president. The latest numbers all but guarantee that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates in its September meeting – and
perhaps again in October. The national bank’s reluctance to employ its
primary lever to boost the economy has been a source of aggravation for Trump
– and has led to his derisive remarks about its chair, Jerome Powell. The Fed
and the president are now probably on the same page on next moves, so that
source of political tumult might ease.
In the long
term, however, Trump’s political outlook is getting darker. He campaigned on
boosting the US economy – a new American “golden age”, he said. But if this is
indeed a sign of troubling days to come, with more Americans worried about
keeping or finding new jobs, they will punish Trump – and Republicans – at the
ballot box next November.
The August
job report had generated more attention than most not only because there are
growing concerns about the American economy but also because of the turmoil in
the government’s labour statistics bureau after Trump fired its head.
Concerns
about Trump-friendly bureaucrats “cooking the books” seem to have been
overstated for now. This is not the kind of jobs report that Trump would like
to see.