When Trump Was in Office, US Job Growth Was Worst Since Great Depression?

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Claim:

During former U.S. President Donald Trump’s term in office, the U.S. suffered the lowest job growth and highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.

Rating:

True (About this rating?)

Context:

During the Trump administration, the U.S. experienced job growth every month from his inauguration in January 2017 through February 2020. Then, beginning in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a major reality in the U.S. and around the world. In the months that followed, millions of Americans lost their jobs, causing a massive dip in job growth and skyrocketing unemployment.

On March 5, 2024, the @BidenHQ account on X — a rapid-response account for U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign — posted, “Fact check: Trump left office with the worst jobs record since the Great Depression and President Biden has since presided over historic economic growth.”

This post included a brief clip taken from the March 5 episode of the Fox News show “Fox & Friends,” in which former U.S. President Donald Trump had been interviewed ahead of the November election. The full interview is available on YouTube.

It’s true that when Trump left office in January 2021, U.S. job growth had dipped and unemployment had soared to its highest peak since the Great Depression. It’s also true that in Biden’s first three years in office, the U.S. saw a historic increase in jobs added to the American economy, all according to data found on the website for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This data reflects the “total nonfarm employment” metric, which is the standard for such reporting.

At the same time, these fact are in glaring need of context, which we have spelled out below.

Trump Admin’s Jobs Record and COVID-19

The Trump administration oversaw growth in the U.S. labor market in every published jobs report from early 2017 through February 2020. Then, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a major reality for the U.S. and much of the rest of the world. The early pandemic period in 2020 led to millions of American job losses, causing a historic drop in the job market under Trump.

In February 2017 — Trump’s first full month in the White House — there were 145,848,000 nonfarm jobs reported in the U.S. By February 2020, that number had grown by nearly 6.5 million jobs, to 152,309,000. However, by the time the April labor market report came out and the world was experiencing the pandemic, the number had fallen dramatically to 130,421,000 jobs. In December — Trump’s final full month in office — that number of jobs had grown back to 142,518,000, resulting in a total loss for his term in office of around 3.3 million jobs.

Biden Admin’s Jobs Record

In February 2021 — Biden’s first full month in office — there were 143,443,000 American jobs reported by the BLS. By November 2023, that number had grown to 157,014,000 — an increase of nearly 14 million jobs that all came in the aftermath of the first year of the historic pandemic. As of January 2024, every month during Biden’s administration had reflected growth, just as Trump’s administration oversaw growth during its first 37 full months – albeit with smaller numbers.

Unemployment Rate: Trump vs. Biden

Under Trump, the unemployment rate in February 2017 was 4.6%, according to the BLS website. The lowest unemployment rate under Trump was 3.5%, which occurred in both September 2019 and February 2020. In April 2020, the number of unemployed Americans rose sharply at the onset of the pandemic, to nearly 15%. (For comparison’s sake, the unemployment rate rose during the Great Depression to around 25% in 1932.) By December 2020, the rate had fallen to 6.7%.

Meanwhile, under Biden, February 2021’s reported unemployment rate was 6.2%. The lowest unemployment rate under Biden was reported as 3.4% for the months of January and April 2023 — the lowest since 1969, according to the BLS. As of January 2024, the number stood at 3.7%.

Further Analysis

For further analysis of the job market recovery during the Biden administration, Snopes recommends reporting from PolitiFact and The Associated Press. Readers might also find helpful this full chart view of American job growth from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Further, Trump’s oft-repeated claim that he passed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history — one that he mentioned yet again in the “Fox & Friends” interview — was previously looked at by The Washington Post.

Sources:

“Americans React to the Great Depression.” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/americans-react-to-great-depression/.

Boak, Josh. “Biden Goes into 2024 with the Economy Getting Stronger, but Voters Feel Horrible about It.” The Associated Press, 11 Dec. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/biden-economy-jobs-inflation-sentiment-53db7f95d14db2557b00424254208272.

“Chart Book: Tracking the Recovery From the Pandemic Recession.” CBPP.org, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 9 June 2022, https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/tracking-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic-recession.

Gould, Elise. “December Jobs Report Provides a Clear Picture of Trump’s Failed Handling of the Economy.” Economic Policy Institute, 8 Jan. 2021, https://www.epi.org/press/december-jobs-report-provides-a-clear-picture-of-trumps-failed-handling-of-the-economy/.

Jacobson, Louis. “Donald Trump Vastly Underestimates Job Gains under Joe Biden.” PolitiFact, 8 Aug. 2023, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/aug/08/donald-trump/donald-trump-vastly-underestimates-job-gains-under/.

Kessler, Glenn. “Fact Check: Biggest Tax Cut in U.S. History?” Washington Post, 30 Jan. 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/live-updates/trump-white-house/fact-checking-and-analysis-of-trumps-state-of-the-union-2018-address/fact-check-biggest-tax-cut-in-u-s-history/.

“Top Picks (Most Requested Statistics).” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls.

“Trump Torches Democratic ‘losers’ Trying to Remove Him from Ballot.” YouTube, Fox News, 5 Mar. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUFIhPzBEok.

“Unemployment Rate: Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000.

“Unemployment Rate Rises to Record High 14.7 Percent in April 2020 : The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” TED: The Economics Daily Image, 13 May 2020, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-rises-to-record-high-14-point-7-percent-in-april-2020.htm.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “All Employees, Total Nonfarm.” FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS.