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The January jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) appears, at first glance, to have positive numbers. But revisions within the report for previous months — and examinations of numbers over the past year — indicate a shakier economy than the Trump administration may want to admit.
The report, published on Wednesday morning, boasts of 130,000 jobs being created in January, a much better showing than expected and a figure nearly three times the number from the December report. The White House was quick to put out a press release celebrating the outcome.
“Today’s blockbuster, expectation-shattering jobs report proves that President Trump’s economic agenda continues to pay off,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said in a statement, adding that the “new revisions” in the jobs report show that “the Biden jobs market was even worse than expected.”
Upon closer examination, however, those characterizations are questionable.
For starters, the report contains 12 months of revised data for the year 2025. In only one of those months, January, was there a revision that occurred during the Biden administration. In 10 of the 11 remaining months, which occurred under President Donald Trump’s watch, there were also downward revisions, seven of which included tens of thousands of negative changes.
Indeed, in the entirety of Trump’s first full year in office — from February 2025 to January 2026 — numbers were revised downward by 244,000 total jobs that were previously reported as having been gained.
Comparing all of 2025 to 2024, as the White House did in its statement, the criticism of the “Biden Economy” compared to the “Trump Economy” is also problematic, as 2024 saw more than 1.4 million jobs created in the U.S., while 2025 year saw a measly 181,000 net jobs growth.
Before today’s press release, Trump Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer had previously called jobs numbers from 2025, which was already deemed the worst non-recession year of jobs growth in more than two decades, a “blockbuster year of solid jobs growth” that was made possible “thanks to the return of President Trump’s America First leadership.”
This latest January jobs report, which touts the creation of 130,000 new jobs, reflects a less active labor market than documented in all but one January jobs report since at least 2017.
It’s unclear yet whether this newest report will see a major revision when the next monthly report is released, but some examinations of the job market from private companies indicate that revisions are likely. For example, data collected by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted 108,435 layoffs in January, 118 percent higher than the layoffs counted for the month one year prior, and the highest January layoff totals since the Great Recession.
Trump has continuously tried to impress upon the American people that the economy is doing well under his watch, stating in a Super Bowl interview over the weekend that he is “very proud” of what he called the “Trump Economy.”
Voters don’t share those sentiments. In an Economist/YouGov poll published on Tuesday, only 34 percent of Americans gave Trump positive marks on his handling of the economy, while 57 percent said they disapprove of how he has handled the issue.
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