Trump ends his term like a growing number of Americans out of a job | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
June 16, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2025
Trump ends his term like a growing number of Americans out of a job

Global Economy

Reuters
09 January, 2021, 10:40 am
Last modified: 09 January, 2021, 10:49 am

Related News

  • What to know about 'No Kings' protests against Trump’s policies
  • Australia PM Albanese to meet with Trump on G7 sidelines in Canada
  • Macron visits Greenland to signal European resolve after Trump annexation threats
  • Trump says US had 'nothing to do with the attack on Iran'
  • Putin speaks to Trump, condemns Israel's strikes on Iran: Kremlin

Trump ends his term like a growing number of Americans out of a job

The Labor Department reported on Friday that the total US employment fell in December by 140,000 to 142.6 million, roughly 10 million fewer jobs than before the coronavirus pandemic struck

Reuters
09 January, 2021, 10:40 am
Last modified: 09 January, 2021, 10:49 am
FILE PHOTO: People line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, US June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, US June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo

The final employment scorecard delivered during President Donald Trump's administration on Friday handed the Republican a mantle no politician would envy: He will be the only modern president to leave office with fewer US jobs than when his term began.

A global pandemic that Trump - who lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Joe Biden in November - was late to recognize and prone to downplay or outright deny through much of its course laid waste to the US economy in the final year of his term. It erased all semblance of the booming job market that he had hoped would vault him to a second term.

Instead, as the Labor Department reported on Friday, total US employment fell in December by 140,000 to 142.6 million, roughly 10 million fewer jobs than before the coronavirus pandemic struck.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The economic record books will count January's employment figures in Trump's column since he leaves office near the end of the month on Jan. 20. This month's data will be reported in early February.

But there is no realistic expectation that payrolls will rebound enough to close the gap of roughly 3 million jobs between December's level and that of January 2017, when Trump took office.

Trump's final year in office was punctuated with economic superlatives, effectively all of them brought on by Covid-19 and the wave of restrictions on business and activity imposed to try to contain its rapid and deadly spread.

The outbreak - which has now infected nearly 21.5 million US residents and killed more than 365,000 - triggered the swiftest and deepest recession of the post-World War Two era.

The unemployment rate rocketed from a half-century low of 3.5% in February 2020 to 14.8% in just two months as more than 22 million people were thrown out of work. While it has come down since to 6.7%, it is 2 percentage points higher than it was when he was sworn into office.

On that front, at least, Trump has company: He is the third Republican president in a row to leave office with a higher jobless rate than on his inauguration. Both President George W. Bush and President George H. W. Bush oversaw rising unemployment rates during their terms.

Through his first three years in office, Trump often pointed to the improving job market for Blacks in stump speeches, claiming no other American president had done as much to improve the lot of African Americans.

Some data bears that out. The Black jobless rate in late 2019 did fall to 5.2% - the lowest since the Labor Department began tracking it. That was still nearly 2 points higher than the rate for whites.

By December 2019, Black employment levels across the country had risen by 8.1% from where they were when Democrat Barack Obama - the first Black president and Trump's predecessor - left office. By contrast job growth over that span for whites was 3.3% - albeit from a much larger base.

But Covid-19 wiped out all of those gains, and while Black employment levels have come closer to where they were at the start of Trump's term, levels for both Blacks and whites remain below that.

Trump came to office promising a manufacturing renaissance as part of his America-first agenda under which he railed against imported goods and companies that had sent factories overseas.

There was some modest improvement in his first three years, with total manufacturing employment rising by 3.8%. But other sectors - especially in services - accounted for most of the job gains to then.

And it was to the services sector that Covid-19 dealt its harshest blow.

Jobs in the leisure and hospitality industries in particular suffered from measures to prevent the spread of the disease, and the newest surge in infections has revisited pain on the sector. While 140,000 jobs were lost overall last month, nearly 500,000 were shed in leisure in leisure and hospitality, and total employment in the sector is 18.5% lower than when Trump took the oath of office.

And what about manufacturing? There are 60,000 fewer factory jobs today than in January 2017.

Top News / World+Biz

US economy / Jobs / Jobs fall / US Jobs / US Jobless Claims / Job market / Donald Trump / Trump Administartion

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • BNP gears up for polls — preps ongoing from grassroots to top brass 
    BNP gears up for polls — preps ongoing from grassroots to top brass 
  • Non-performing loans surge by Tk74,570cr in Q1 as hidden rot exposed
    Non-performing loans surge by Tk74,570cr in Q1 as hidden rot exposed
  • Representational image of school children. File photo: Collected
    Govt issues urgent guidelines to educational institutes to curb Covid, dengue spread

MOST VIEWED

  • Vehicles were seen stuck on the Dhaka-Tangail-Jamuna Bridge highway due to a traffic jam stretching 15 kilometres on 14 June 2025. Photo: TBS
    15km traffic jam on Dhaka-Tangail-Jamuna Bridge highway as post-Eid rush continues
  • Tour operator Borsha Islam. Photo: Collected
    ‘Tour Expert’ admin Borsha Islam arrested over Bandarban tourist deaths
  • Infographic: TBS
    Chattogram Port proposes 70%-100% tariff hike
  • Fighter jet. Photo: AFP
    3 F-35 fighter jets downed, two Israeli pilots in custody, claims Iranian media
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Merger of 5 Islamic banks at final stage: BB governor
  • Infograph: TBS
    Why 10 economic zones, including BGMEA's garment park, were cancelled

Related News

  • What to know about 'No Kings' protests against Trump’s policies
  • Australia PM Albanese to meet with Trump on G7 sidelines in Canada
  • Macron visits Greenland to signal European resolve after Trump annexation threats
  • Trump says US had 'nothing to do with the attack on Iran'
  • Putin speaks to Trump, condemns Israel's strikes on Iran: Kremlin

Features

Renowned authors Imdadul Haque Milon, Mohit Kamal, and poet–children’s writer Rashed Rouf seen at Current Book Centre, alongside the store's proprietor, Shahin. Photo: Collected

From ‘Screen and Culture’ to ‘Current Book House’: Chattogram’s oldest surviving bookstore

11h | Panorama
Photos: Collected

Kurtis that make a great office wear

2d | Mode
Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

4d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

5d | Features

More Videos from TBS

Macron to visit Greenland after Trump's annexation threat

Macron to visit Greenland after Trump's annexation threat

7h | TBS World
Important facilities including Natanz damaged in Israeli attack

Important facilities including Natanz damaged in Israeli attack

7h | Others
Iran's gas production from South Pars halted after Israeli attack

Iran's gas production from South Pars halted after Israeli attack

8h | TBS World
Why the Strait of Hormuz is a key point of discussion in the Iran-Israel conflict

Why the Strait of Hormuz is a key point of discussion in the Iran-Israel conflict

7h | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net