After the inauguration of Donald Trump, many citizens believed that he will be capable of decreasing the unemployment rate. In the article, Without Immigrants, Trump’s Jobs Numbers Would be Much, Much Worse, writer Philip Bump focused on comparing Trump’s actions to economic recovery to Obama’s term. Bump began his article by mentioning that Obama came into the office when employment was suffering. When Obama took office, the unemployment rate for the United States was 7.8 percent. The peak unemployment rate when Obama was in office was 10 percent. During Trump’s term in office, the peak unemployment rate was 4.7 percent.
When this information was presented to Trump, Trump tweeted More people are working today in the United States, 158,000,000 than at any time in our Country’s history. That is a big deal.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ confirmed that the figure was actually under 157,000,000. However, the all-time high for employment did indeed occur in November 2018. Economist believe that the labor force increased as a result of an increase in population. Bump found from July 2016 to July 2018 the United States added 4 million people and 4.7 million jobs. Trump failed to acknowledge in his tweet that more than a third of employment went to immigrants. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ found that 17% of the people working in the United States were born in a foreign country. Researchers found, in 2017 the workforce consisted of 66% of foreign-born people that were able to work compared to 62% of American born citizens. The U.S. Census Bureau found the increase in population from 2010-2018 is a result of immigration.
Bump, Philip. “Without Immigrants, Trump’s Jobs Numbers Would Be Much, Much Worse.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/11/without-immigrants-trumps-jobs-numbers-would-be-much-much-worse/?utm_term=.415e91b10e7a.