A top economic adviser to President Donald Trump found a bizarre way to spin the dismal jobs report.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, argued on Friday that severe weather from months ago was partly to blame for the U.S. losing 23,000 jobs in July, despite economists predicting a gain of 83,000.
Hassett told Fox News that officials found two main factors behind the slump.
“One is there was a big decline in, uh, government employment, uh, which is partly because of DOGE and partly because there was so much snow over the winter that there were extra school days at the end of the year,” he said.
“And so the normal time when teachers would take the summer off was June, but a lot of them got pushed into July and so then they show up as a layoff in July,” he continued. “And, uh, the end of the World Cup meant that a lot of hospitality workers, uh, were then laid off after the World Cup ended.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said employment in local government education fell by 50,000 in July, while there was little change in several other industries, including leisure and hospitality.
Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said the decline in government employment indeed played a role in the weaker-than-expected numbers because of the timing of the school calendar—not because of snow days.
“This looks like a wonky seasonal adjustment fluke,” he said. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics tries to adjust their measurement of K-12 jobs for the big swings that come every year in the summer months, but it’s hard to do in practice.”
The unemployment rate also dipped in July from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent. It has been below 4.5 percent for 58 consecutive months, the longest streak on record. The Labor Department also revised down its jobs figures for May and June by a combined 103,000, suggesting there were fewer jobs than originally thought.
But Hassett maintained that “the momentum in the economy continues to be strong.”
“We see durable goods orders, capital spending through the roof, people aren’t being laid off, initial claims for unemployment insurance are about the lowest they’ve had since World War II. And so when you see a number like that, it seems like it’s dissonant with everything else that we’re seeing,” he said.
The White House was similarly unfazed by the report, despite it contradicting Trump’s repeated claims of a booming economy.
“The Trump industrial resurgence is on schedule. Manufacturing and factory construction jobs grew again in July even as government payrolls continued to significantly shrink. Unemployment claims are at record lows,” a White House spokesperson said.
