President Trump on Thursday said “real” jobs numbers will come next year, ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) first jobs report since he fired its leader in response to dismal numbers in July.
“They come out tomorrow, but the real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now on,” Trump told reporters, while flanked by over two dozen top tech executives at a White House dinner.
He said that when “huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius” open, job numbers will improve. He did not specify what projects he was referring to.
“When they start opening up… I think you’ll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible,” Trump said. “Right now, it’s a lot of construction numbers, but you’re gonna see job numbers like our country has never seen.”
His comments on the jobs report come as economists are predicting more weakening in the labor market for August. The July jobs report, which sparked Trump to fire former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, showed an average of just 35,000 jobs being added to the economy across May, June and July.
Her firing has raised concerns over the politicization of jobs data and whether the public should question whether they can trust future releases. White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN last week, “I think they’ll be as good as they can be, but they need to get a lot better.”
The president spoke to reporters while he hosted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, among several others, for a dinner at the White House.
At the dinner, which was slated to be the inaugural event in the newly renovated Rose Garden but moved inside due to rain, Trump asked attendees to say how much their companies were investing in U.S. manufacturing.
Source: The Hill - News
