White House Hails Positive Jobs Report

The Trump administration celebrated its first monthly jobs report Friday, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcing the addition of more than 151,00 new jobs in February.

“In one month under President Trump, the American economy is soaring back to greatness after the economic calamity left by Joe Biden,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement.

“The manufacturing industry is already rebounding, as there were 9,000 new auto jobs created—the most auto jobs added in 15 months! Under President Trump, the private sector is leading the way—93% of the job gains in February were in the private sector. This is great news for American workers and families.”

POTUS: “During the last year, the Biden administration saw a loss of more than 110K manufacturing jobs or 9K manufacturing jobs every single month — During the first full month in office, we’ve not only stopped the manufacturing collapse, but we’ve begun to rapidly reverse it… pic.twitter.com/njThXqesr1

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 7, 2025

The jobs report, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that “[t]oval nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in February.”

“Nonfarm payroll employment” refers to all jobs, except for those in agriculture, self-employed workers, those in the nonprofit sector, and members of the military.

The jobs report is mostly positive, as it indicates “employment trended up in health care, financial activities, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance.”

However, the total number of unemployed Americans remained mostly unchanged.

“Both the unemployment rate, at 4.1 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in February,” the report stated.

“The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.0 percent to 4.2 percent since May 2024.”

Trump celebrated the report in the Oval Office, especially the fact that Americans’ job gains were higher than those of foreign workers.

“For the first time in [15] months, the job gains native-born Americans, for American people, people born in America exceeded job gains for migrant and foreign-born workers. Employment for native-born workers went up by [284,000], while foreign-born workers went down by [87,000].”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: For the first time in fifteen months, the job gains for native-born Americans exceeded the job gains for migrant and foreign workers. Employment for native-born workers went up by 284K while foreign born workers went down by 87K. pic.twitter.com/rDoEQww4Yp

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 7, 2025

Notably, the report indicates that “federal government employment declined by 10,000 in February.”

That comes after a month of aggressive cuts by the Trump administration to federal agencies, such as at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as amid anti-bureaucray rhetoric from the administration.

The president cheered on this shift of employment gains to the private sector.

“Under the final two years of [President Joe] Biden, one in every four jobs created in America was a government job. That’s a tremendous percentage. But under the first full month of President Trump—which we haven’t even gotten started yet—an incredible 93% of all job gains were in the private sector.”

.@POTUS: “Under the final two years of Biden, one in every four jobs created in America was a government job… But under the first full month of President Trump, an incredible 93% of all job gains were in the private sector.” 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3Ai1Rskvps

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 7, 2025

The president’s remarks echo those of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who spoke at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday of a shift from a public sector economy to a private sector one.

“When you think about 25% of GDP flowing through [Washington, D.C.] area code 202, everybody’s trying to skim a portion of it, trying to reallocate it,” he said.

“This has been a government-driven economy. You want to make this a private sector-driven economy. We want to, as I understand it, disempower the public federal bureaucracy and re-empower the kind of risk-taking and investment that goes along with private sector advances.”

In its statement to the press, the Trump administration also touted an increase in automobile industry jobs in February. Trump was reelected on a promise of bringing auto manufacturing back to the United States.

“The rebound in manufacturing jobs was led by the automobile sector, which gained 8,900 new jobs in February—after losing 27,300 auto jobs in Biden’s final year—showing that firms are reshoring production and positively responding to President Trump’s trade policies,” the White House’s statement said.