"Give Pete Navarro, President Donald Trump's economics adviser and ex-con, credit for gumption: He's seeking to direct public attention away from one of the White House's least-popular policy initiatives to one that's performing even worse in opinion polling. During a Tuesday appearance on Fox Business, Navarro cautioned the Trump faithful, "We have to revise expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like.... Wall Street has to adjust for the fact that we're deporting millions of illegals out of the job market.""
"came in stronger than expected, with an estimated 130,000 new positions added in January-yet downward adjustments in monthly reports show that virtually no employment growth occurred during 2025. The Trump administration's already feeble job additions over the year were downgraded to a mere 181,000 positions, while 2024 saw the addition of nearly a million and a half new jobs. What's more, January's hiring surge was chiefly powered by hiring in healthcare-a sector in which immigrant labor plays a pivotal role."
Pete Navarro urged lowering expectations for monthly job numbers and attributed weaker hiring to mass deportations. The Trump administration averaged just 49,000 job increases per month, far below prior performance. January added an estimated 130,000 positions, but revisions show virtually no employment growth during 2025 and total 2025 additions downgraded to 181,000, compared with nearly 1.5 million in 2024. January hiring was driven mainly by healthcare, a sector reliant on immigrant labor, contradicting claims that deportations explain weak hiring. Structural weaknesses persist, including erratic tariffs, ongoing inflation, and sluggish housing and manufacturing sectors.
Read at The Nation
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