The latest snapshot of the United States economy brought disappointing news about the health of the labor market, as figures showed the country lost 23,000 jobs in July. The decline came as a surprise to many experts, who had been expecting the addition of more than 80,000 new jobs, and instead pointed to a cooling labor economy rather than the continued hiring many had anticipated.
The unexpected drop landed as a jolt for economists, who described it as a very bad set of outcomes. Rather than the steady growth that had been forecast, the report suggested momentum in hiring was fading, raising fresh questions about the direction of an economy that many Americans were already watching with unease.
The Trump administration moved quickly to respond and to defend its record. National Economic Director Kevin Hassett defended the Trump economy and blamed high prices on the Biden administration, arguing that people are losing their jobs at the lowest level since World War II and that the cyclical indicators he normally looks at point to an economy in what he called a liftoff stage.
The upbeat framing from the White House clashed with the everyday experience of many households. The report came as large numbers of Americans continued to struggle with the cost of living, with the pace of the economy described as much slower and workers struggling to keep up with inflation, a gap between official optimism and lived reality that has become a defining feature of the moment.
President Trump nonetheless offered a starkly positive assessment, claiming to a crowd in Las Vegas that the economy is the best the United States has ever had, despite polls showing otherwise. A new Marquette poll found that 61 percent of Americans say Trump's policies increased inflation, while 57 percent say gas prices have gone up a lot over the past six months, findings the president dismissed by calling them fake polls.
On the question of fuel costs, the numbers offered a more mixed picture than the polling suggested. The average price of gasoline sits at 3.95 dollars a gallon, according to GasBuddy, down more than 10 cents from the previous week's average, a small measure of relief even as the broader debate over jobs, prices and the true state of the economy continued to sharpen.