MaddowBlog-Job growth improved in March, following a sharp decline in February

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The U.S. economy has now added 321,000 jobs over Trump’s 15-month second term. Over the previous 15 months, the economy added roughly 1.9 million jobs.

The new job numbers look good, but I’m mindful of the larger context:

Job growth during the first 15 months of Trump’s second term: 321,000 jobs

Job growth during the last 15 months of Biden’s term: 1.9 million jobs

The Trump White House has no explanation for this.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-03T13:04:24.025Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jobs-report-march-unemployment

Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 59,000 new jobs being created in the United States in March. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals exceeded those expectations. CNBC reported:

Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 178,000 during the month, a reversal from the 133,000 decline in February and better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 59,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. February’s number was revised down by 41,000 while January was revised up by 34,000 to 160,000, putting the three-month average around 68,000.

With job creation higher, the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3%.

It’s worth emphasizing for context that a major nursing strike in California and Hawaii depressed payrolls in February by tens of thousands of jobs, and now that those labor disputes have been resolved, those now count as new jobs in March. Still, 178,000 is a good overall number.....

To contextualize the data, MS NOW put together this chart showing month-to-month totals since the 2020 election. The blue columns point to Biden’s presidency, while the red columns point to Trump’s.

?resize=560,695

It remains to be seen whether the president responds to the trend by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (again).

[Klarkashton]

1. Until a downward revision of these figures in a couple

Of months.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. MS NOW- The April jobs report looks good -- but there's rot underneath

On the whole, the job market is all but frozen, with little in the way of hiring or turnover. And for recent college graduates, it’s even worse.

The April jobs report looks good — but there’s rot underneath.

On the whole, the job market is all but frozen, with little in the way of hiring or turnover. And for recent college graduates, it’s even worse.

www.ms.now/opinion/jobs...

— TheBlackPage (Woke, DEI forever against fascism) (@theblackpage.bsky.social) 2026-04-03T17:16:38.915Z

https://www.ms.now/opinion/jobs-report-reaction

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 – 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 than when Trump returned to the White House, And a large part of the reason the overall unemployment rate fell to 4.3% is because 400,000 people exited the workforce entirely.
?resize=560,695

Overall, the job market is all but frozen, with little in the way of hiring or turnover. And for recent college graduates, it’s even worse, which might help explain Trump’s faltering support among this cohort. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, more than 40 percent of college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 hold jobs that typically don’t 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.....

Economists are increasingly predicting stagflation – a period of low growth and high inflation – for the U.S. No surprise, consumer sentiment is all but in the toilet, with the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey at near-record lows and huge numbers of Americans say they believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.....

At the same time, the extreme corruption of the Trump administration is also giving companies a license to raise prices and otherwise treat their customers like chumps without a choice. The gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has left Americans with nowhere to turn when a credit card issuer or bank does them wrong. The de facto refusal to enforce antitrust statutes will almost certainly raise costs for Americans as well.

As I’ve pointed out before, Trump’s economy in many ways resembles to a multi-level marketing scheme. The only people making out here are the wealthiest of the wealthy, who are benefitting from tax cuts, while Trump performs his lifelong serial con bait and switch on the rest of us. This month’s job numbers are almost certainly offering more of the same – they look good on first glance, but dig beneath the surface, and the rot quickly becomes apparent.