Business expert flags probable 'undercount' in Trump's unemployment numbers

NBC business analyst Christine Romans shot down enthusiasm over the new jobs numbers released on Friday, stating unusual circumstances related to DOGE government cuts kept unemployment numbers lower than expected.

Speaking with MSNBC host Ana Cabrera, Romans was asked about the report that showed unemployment numbers held steady at 4.2 percent, 177,000 jobs added in April.

Asked if the job numbers could "cushion" the blow of Donald Trump's tariffs just taking effect, Romans replied, "The job market is resilient and you know we ended last year and came into this year with a strong labor market; cooling but still strong."

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"So I think that's good news considering all the uncertainty that is ahead here," she explained. "An unemployment rate of 4.2 percent that is near historic lows, you look under the hood here and you can see health care hiring a lot. You can see warehouses hiring. I wonder why? Because companies have been pulling forward a lot of their purchases of goods before tariffs."

"Then you look also in these numbers in federal workers, you see 9,000 federal workers lost jobs this year, about 26,000, that's probably an undercount and here's why," she offered. "The government, even in this notice, says if you're furloughed or you're still getting a paycheck, you're still counted as as employed. So a lot of these people with buyouts are just not in these numbers yet. So this is a solid position to start from with a lot of tariff uncertainty happening right now."

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