Yup, 2025 really was a horrific year for jobs

The U.S. economy added an abysmally low 181,000 jobs in 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Wednesday, revising the annual job total down by a whopping 400,000 jobs to show that virtually no jobs were added in President Donald Trump's first year in office.

The annual job growth was the worst year in decades, and was the result of Trump's idiotic trade policy causing massive uncertainty for businesses, leading them to pull back on growth plans or cut roles altogether.

"2025 was the weakest year for job growth since the pandemic, and before that since the Great Recession," New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman wrote in a post on X.

x

Breaking this down by year, job growth in 2024 was revised down by more than a quarter (-553k jobs), and 2025 was revised down by close to 70% (-403k jobs). 2025 was the weakest year for job growth since the pandemic, and before that since the Great Recession. pic.twitter.com/sZkJCIE9aI

— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) February 11, 2026

The paltry 181,000 jobs is far worse than the nearly 1.5 million jobs created in 2024, former President Joe Biden's last year in office, which Trump had criticized as being poor.

In fact, during the 2024 campaign he slammed the BLS' downward revisions of the monthly jobs reports under Biden, saying: "The Harris Biden administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics to hide the true extent of the economic ruin that they've inflicted on America."

Trump also accused Biden of carrying out a "MASSIVE SCANDAL" and for having had "PADDED THE NUMBERS."

By that ridiculous metric, it means Trump did the same, as his BLS revised the monthly jobs totals down, too. Economists said that the downward revisions to 2025's job creation shows that the United States was in a hiring recession last year, with the only thing propping up the jobs market being health care and education jobs.

"The U.S. job market is very unbalanced right now,” University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers wrote in a post on X. “One sector more than accounts for all jobs growth over the past year. The rest of the economy is shedding jobs."

x

The U.S. job market is very unbalanced right now. One sector more than accounts for all jobs growth over the past year. The rest of the economy is shedding jobs. pic.twitter.com/EGsnQj04uA

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) February 11, 2026

Trump has been trying to gaslight Americans into believing that the economy is doing great.

He’s traveling the country to tout his flailing economy, declaring at a speech in Iowa in January that his idiotic tariff policy has led to the “most dramatic one-year turnaround of any country in history”—even though the tariffs have only led to higher costs and sagging job creation. In that same speech, Trump ludicrously said that inflation is “solved”—even though it most certainly is not. 

It’s no wonder that polls show Americans are pessimistic about the state of the country, and disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy—which they list as the most important issue for them in the midterms.

Related | American optimism hits new low

Ultimately, Republicans are trying to save face by touting the January jobs number that BLS also reported on Wednesday. The report said the economy added 130,000 jobs last month, a number that would have been considered low during Biden’s tenure but that Republicans are now celebrating because of just how horrible the last year’s reports have been. 

However, economists said that even the good news from January should be taken with a grain of salt.

"I wouldn’t exhale with today’s job numbers. The job market remains fragile and highly vulnerable," Moody's Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi wrote in a post on X. "Yes, payroll employment increased by 130,000 in January, but given the big downward revisions to history, there has been no job growth since last April (Liberation Day). Moreover, nearly all of the job growth in January and over the past year has been in healthcare. Indeed, over the past year, without the job gains in healthcare, the economy would have lost a bunch of jobs. And this is before artificial intelligence has meaningfully impacted productivity growth and thus jobs, which feels dead ahead. So, soak in the January job gains, I suspect there won’t be many more months with job gains like this in 2026."

x

I wouldn’t exhale with today’s job numbers. The job market remains fragile and highly vulnerable. Yes, payroll employment increased by 130,000 in January, but given the big downward revisions to history, there has been no job growth since last April (Liberation Day). Moreover,… pic.twitter.com/aQA78PYgGR

— Mark Zandi (@Markzandi) February 11, 2026

rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer)مصدر