The U.S. economy shed 23,000 jobs last month, even as the White House's chief economist described the economy as "booming," but CNN's Harry Enten said American voters aren't buying what President Donald Trump's team is selling.
The president's approval rating specifically on jobs has fallen 22 points underwater, Enten said, down sharply from a plus-9 rating at the start of his second term. The decline is even steeper compared to the same point in his first term, when he was 10 points above water on the issue — amounting to a 32-point swing.
"These are the types of numbers that will make a lot of Republican members of Congress lose their jobs come November," Enten said.
Broader sentiment on the direction of the jobs market has shifted just as dramatically. At the start of Trump's second term, a plurality of Americans said the country was on the right track on jobs and employment. That "right track" number has since fallen 11 points to just 29 percent, while the "wrong track" figure has surged nearly 20 points and now holds a clear majority.
Enten pointed to a related shift in how Americans view their personal job prospects as a key driver. Just before Trump's second term began, 48 percent of Americans said it was a good time to find a quality job, versus 45 percent who said it was a bad time. By the start of the second quarter of 2026, those numbers had flipped dramatically: 63 percent now say it's a bad time to find quality work, while only 33 percent say it's good — a 30-point swing toward pessimism.
Enten emphasized that this shift reflects sentiment rather than hard data alone, making it harder to reverse even if underlying conditions change. Compounding the outlook, prediction market Kalshi currently puts a 92 percent probability on 2026 tech layoffs exceeding 2025's total.
"These are the types of numbers that political nightmares are made of," Enten said, "and it is very difficult to change voter sentiment when it seems to be so locked in this. On the negative side, you put that together with voter sentiment on inflation, that is a recipe for disaster for Republicans running in the midterm."