The top economist at the Heritage Foundation made a compelling case for why President Donald Trump’s jobs numbers are better than the headline figure indicates.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that a total of 50,000 jobs were added to the economy in December. That’s a holding-steady number. Given the country’s population, it takes upward of 50,000 new jobs to keep the unemployment rate about constant.
Such was true last month when the unemployment rate dropped slightly, by 0.1 percent to 4.4 percent.
The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, E.J. Antoni, pointed out in a piece for Townhall.com that if you look a little deeper at U.S. employment, there’s some very encouraging information, especially for those holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet.
He highlighted the discrepancy between the 50,000 news jobs figure and the survey of households’ total, finding that the number of people employed in the country jumped by 232,000.
“There’s an explanation for this difference if we dig further into the report, and it indicates a very positive development in the labor market,” Antoni argued.
“The number of multiple jobholders plunged by 444,000 last month, the second-largest drop since the government-imposed Covid lockdowns. Simultaneously in December, the number of part-time jobs declined by 740,000 while full-time employment shot up by 890,000,” he added.
In other words, people — including that mom who might be holding down three jobs — are exchanging part-time gigs for full-time employment.
Antoni elaborated, writing, “Let’s say someone quits three of those part-time jobs and replaces them all with a single full-time one. That’s a net reduction of two payrolls, so it reduces the headline jobs number even though the person is better off. This is very likely the dynamic that was at play last month, hence the number of people employed rose more than four times faster than the number of jobs.”
This is the opposite dynamic that happened under former President Joe Biden, when inflation shot up to 9.1 percent, a 40-year-high, by June 2022.
People were struggling to pay their bills, so they took second and third jobs.
Overall, the BLS reported that there were just 584,000 jobs created in 2025, versus approximately 2 million added in 2024.
But, Antoni noted, “All the net job growth in 2025 came from the productive private sector, while government jobs declined, due entirely to federal layoffs. It’s a positive development, but it drags down the headline jobs number.”
The BLS reported that federal employment is down 277,000 from January of last year.
Biden presided over a nearly 6 percent increase in the size of the full-time federal workforce during his tenure, with the total cresting 3 million in September 2024 for the first time since 1990, according to USA Facts.
The current number of federal employees is 2.744 million, the lowest since late 2014.
Finally, under Trump, people’s real income is going up, since wage increases are outpacing inflation.
Trump told the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, “After real wages plummeted by $3,000 under Sleepy Joe Biden, real wages are up by $1,300 in less than one year under President Trump.”
.@POTUS: “After real wages plummeted by $3,000 under Sleepy Joe Biden, real wages are up by $1,300 in less than one year under President Trump. For Construction workers, wages are up $1,800… factory workers, over $2,000 — and for many other workers, over $5,000!” pic.twitter.com/O96CEuQnkM
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 13, 2026
So, all-in-all, a pretty good year for working Americans, but with the Trump tax cuts about to take effect in 2026, the best is yet to come.
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