President Donald Trump was dealt a setback on Tuesday with a new report showing the U.S. lost 41,000 jobs over two months.
The data, delayed due to the government shutdown, showed the economy added 64,000 jobs last month.
However, 105,000 jobs were lost in October due to the government shutdown, the most lost since the U.S. was reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
While the White House was quick to tout the November jobs numbers on Tuesday morning, the U.S. economy has added barely any jobs since April.
The data “paints a sobering picture of a job market that may officially be turning frigid after a prolonged cooling period,” according to Indeed’s director of economic research, Laura Ullrich.
There were roughly 700,000 more people unemployed in November than there were one year ago, before Trump took office.
The unemployment rate ticked up slightly more than expected to 4.6 percent last month, up from 4.4 percent in September. That is the highest unemployment rate since September 2021.
While November’s jobs added beat expectations, the report showed that the number of jobs created in August and September was also revised down by a combined 33,000 jobs.
Overall, the economy would have lost jobs over the past six months if not for the healthcare industry. It comes as Congress is grappling with a healthcare cliff.
Ullrich called the healthcare jobs, which accounted for all of 2025’s growth, a “worrisome concentration that is helping to push up unemployment overall as non-healthcare workers struggle to enter the market.”
Manufacturing has continued to lose jobs month over month and is down 58,000 this year to date.
“Far from sparking a manufacturing renaissance, Trump’s reckless trade agenda is bleeding working class jobs, forcing layoffs, and raising prices for businesses and consumers alike,” said Alex Jacquez from Groundwork Collaborative.
The year to date shows the least number of jobs added since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic forced the U.S. into a recession.
Despite the grim jobs data, the president gave himself an A+++++ on the economy last week, but most Americans disagree.
An AP-NORC poll released last week showed the president’s approval for his handling of the economy has slipped to just 31 percent. 68 percent of adults say the economy is in poor shape.
After the jobs report was released on Tuesday, the president’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett argued that what is “probably” happening is that the data reflects the 250,000 federal workers who took the buyout but stayed in the workforce and are now looking for jobs.
Last week, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, its third cut of the year.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted the softening in the labor market in the decision to cut the rate in December, but he indicated a period of uncertainty ahead.
