The Trump administration celebrated the increase in manufacturing jobs during President Donald Trump’s first full month in office as the February job report was released on Friday.
The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 151,000 jobs were added to the economy in February, including 10,000 new manufacturing jobs. Federal government jobs declined by 10,000 as the Trump administration has pushed to slash the size of the government bureaucracy.
“In one month under President Trump, the American economy is soaring back to greatness after the economic calamity left by Joe Biden,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “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. The Trump Administration will continue to work hard to implement pro-growth policies and push Congress to enact the Trump Economic Agenda,” she added.
The White House said that the report was a “swift turnaround” from the Biden administration, saying that 111,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Biden’s final year in office.
The report found that most growth was in the health care, transportation, warehouse, social assistance, and financial industries. The unemployment rate was at around 4.1%, a slight uptick from January.
The overall job group was 19,000 less than the 170,000 increase that had been predicted by the Dow Jones.
The most notable decline was in federal government jobs, which comes as Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has pushed cuts across the sprawling federal bureaucracy.
Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni noted that job growth increased most among native-born Americans.
“Well, that was a fast reversal – for the 1st time in 15 months, annual job growth among native-born Americans exceeded that of foreign-born workers; still a long way to go, but a very good start,” he said.
Well, that was a fast reversal – for the 1st time in 15 months, annual job growth among native-born Americans exceeded that of foreign-born workers; still a long way to go, but a very good start: pic.twitter.com/VNFuM3eHAP
— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) March 7, 2025
The report from the bureau added that revisions had been made to the previous months’ jobs reports, including an upward revision of 16,000 in December and a downward revision of 18,000 in January.
