An economist flagged several warning signs after the latest jobs report showed President Donald Trump's economy had become "anemic."
On Friday, the Trump administration released a report that showed the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, one of the worst monthly performances in several years. Heather Long, the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said on MS NOW's "Alex Witt Reports" that the data underscored "several issues for mainstream America."
"It's basically a job market on life support in many ways," Long said.
Long noted that the impact of Trump's war against Iran has only served to increase the financial pain many Americans are feeling. She noted that the latest showed inflation was 3.5% over the last year because of the war. That completely negates the 3.2% increase in wages that Americans received over the same time, she said.
"Unfortunately, inflation, particularly after the war in Iran, is growing way more than that," Long said. "We'll get some new data this week, but it's still going to be inflation totally wiping out wage gains. And that's why Americans feel squeezed right now."
Long also pointed to the low hiring figures as a sign that the economy is pushing many Americans to the brink. She said the economy has averaged roughly 20,000 jobs created each month, which she described as "anemic."
"Any job seeker knows how hard it is right now," Long said. And the big change, the reason so many economists gasped on Friday when these numbers came out, is we now have a 2000-a-month average. Back when we saw the June data, we thought the three-month average was over 100,000. So, things were picking up. That's really been dashed after this latest report."
