Trump Econ Chief on Soft Jobs Report: ‘We’re Very, Very Happy!’ Overall

Fox News’s Bill Hemmer hit Trump economic chief Kevin Hassett with the tough jobs report that came out Friday, but Hassett assured him that it’s all according to plan.

“U.S. added 29,000 jobs last month, but we had expected about 90,000,” Hemmer said on America’s Newsroom. “Unemployment ticked up a tenth of a percent to 4.2. The market likes it. Stocks are flying right now on Wall Street. The Dow is up 338 points, the NASDAQ up well over 1%, and S&P is trending that way as well.”

“What do you make of this number?” Hemmer asked Hassett, adding, “‘Cause you missed the number by about 66%.”

“The thing about the jobs numbers is that they sort of bounce up and down,” Hassett said. “But if you look at the data from this week, it’s proving that Trumponomics is really working, and this is one reason why markets are celebrating so much.”

Hassett continued:

We got a GDP release a couple days ago that radically revised up GDP, and revised it up on things that are positive for growth, like factory spending, and so on. And then we got an inflation report, which is the Fed’s favorite inflation report, which, if you look at the three month moving average they’re saying that core inflation is only 2%, and top line inflation is only 1%, because the price of food and energy is declining now off of highs of the summer.

And so now we have a jobs report that is a little bit lukewarm, but if you look inside, 12,000 of the jobs were factory construction jobs. So there are 112,000 people who are building factories right now that weren’t doing it when President Trump took office. And so those factories will turn into future jobs and we’re seeing it even with the groundbreaking the president did yesterday in Texas.

Hassett added, “So, we’re very, very happy with the numbers this week, and I think the markets are, too.”

“So, you’re bullish, I expected that,” Hemmer said. “Participation rate — the way I read it, half a million Americans came back into the workforce. Is that what the report shows?

“Right, yeah, so people are seeing the strong labor market and they’re saying ‘Oh, I need to get back to the labor force ’cause I’m gonna make so much money.’ And that’s one reason why the unemployment rate just ticked in a different direction.”

Watch the clip above via America Reports on Fox News.

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