Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 73,000 new jobs being created in the United States in December. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals fell short of those expectations. CNBC News reported:

The U.S. labor market ended 2025 on a soft note, with job creation in December less than expected, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 50,000 for the month, lower than the downwardly revised 56,000 in November and short of the Dow Jones estimate for 73,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, compared to the forecast for 4.5%.

The improved jobless rate offers a small silver lining to an otherwise discouraging report, but even this data point needs context: When Donald Trump took office in January, the unemployment rate was 3.7%. In December, it was 4.4%.

Adding to the discouraging news, the manufacturing sector lost 8,000 jobs in December, extending a downturn that lasted much of the year.

As for the larger context, the latest report shows that the U.S. job market added 584,000 jobs in 2025, which might sound like a decent number until you compare it to recent history. In 2024, for example, a year in the Biden administration during which the incumbent president said the economy was terrible, the economy created more than 2 million jobs. A year earlier, the total was almost 2.6 million......

This obviously isn’t the greatest economy in American history; expecting Americans to be grateful for failure is preposterous; and a year ago, the job market was generating far more jobs with a lower unemployment rate.

The question for the president and his White House team is simple: If Trump has created “the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country,” why has American job growth slowed to a 16-year low?