Trump: Rise in jobless rate OK since it’s fueled by federal job cuts

President Trump, hoping to boost his ratings on the economy, says a recent increase in the unemployment rate is OK because the change is due to a drastic reduction in the federal workforce.

Mr. Trump was referring to a Labor Department report this week that found the unemployment rate hit 4.6% in November, up from 4.2% a year prior and the highest reading since September 2021.

“We are reducing the government workforce by numbers that have never been seen before,” Mr. Trump said Friday at a White House event with drugmakers.

Mr. Trump said the federal payroll was bloated, so he is focused on creating jobs in the private sector.

“100% of new jobs are in the private sector,” he said. “I could reduce unemployment to 2%, 1% or practically zero, by just hiring people into the federal government, even though those jobs are not necessary, which is what we had before.”

Layoffs and resignations in the federal workforce are a significant factor in the declining job numbers and increasing unemployment rate. Mr. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, took a hatchet to the federal bureaucracy earlier this year.

Preliminary data this week show a net loss of 105,000 positions within the U.S. for October, driven by massive cuts in government employment as federal workers took delayed resignation deals.

However, other sectors are shedding jobs because of cost-cutting and possibly other factors, such as displacement from artificial intelligence.

The professional services sector is cutting jobs, while manufacturing lost 5,000 positions in November despite Mr. Trump’s pledge to lead a made-in-America renaissance.

The administration says manufacturing jobs will arrive eventually, pointing to a recent rise in construction employment.

Mr. Trump said automakers, drugmakers and artificial intelligence companies are building factories and offices around the country and will create new jobs.