'Frozen' labor market begins to crack as jobless rate rises under Trump

The Trump administration has just released the September jobs report: unemployment climbed up to 4.4%, the highest it’s been in nearly four years. Employers added 119,000 jobs, half the number from the same month one year ago.

While calling the 119,000 number “stronger than expected,” NBC News warned, “there are still signs of a weakening labor market.”

“So far,” NBC added, “many economic analysts have been reluctant to call it a full-blown jobs crisis.”

Economic experts weighed in.

“This is a frozen labor market that’s starting to crack,” observed Heather Long, the chief economist at Navy Federal.

“The jobs report shows a labor market that was really weak this summer and didn’t improve much in September,” Long continued.

She also noted that many industries are laying off workers, and posted a graph titled: “The US economy has hardly added any jobs since May.”

“Bottom line,” Long concluded, “The economy added an average of 44k jobs a month for the past 4 months. That’s barely ‘treading water.'”

Professor of economics and frequent cable news guest Justin Wolfers also served up a warning: “Here’s what worries the Fed (and me!): The unemployment rate is slowly drifting up. This is a clear sign of an unhealthy economy. And it’s happening slowly enough that it hasn’t attracted many headlines. But it really matters.”

Economics writer Joey Politano noted that for Black Americans, unemployment “remained at 7.5% in September, the highest level since 2021 and a nearly 1.9% increase from the start of this year.”

During the Biden era, unemployment for Black Americans hit a record low.

Michele Evermore, a former U.S. Department of Labor official, warned: “While everyone’s looking at September jobs data, I think it is also important to note that continued claims for unemployment for LAST WEEK was 1,974,000 – the highest since 2021.”