Jobs
Fact Check: Trump Falsely Claims ‘100%’ Of New Jobs Under Biden Went To ‘Illegal Migrants’
Topline
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed “100%” of jobs created under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have gone to “illegal migrants”—repeating a claim he’s often made, despite data showing Biden’s tenure has overseen job growth for the American-born workforce.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have long criticized the labor market under … [+]
Key Facts
The former president told a crowd at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that “we have an economic disaster on our hands,” and restated his false claim that “100% of the jobs created under this administration has gone to illegal migrants that came into our country.”
Trump and other Republicans have continuously falsely said job growth under Biden has been “virtually 100%” from illegal immigration, which is not true as the number of employed American-born people in the workforce has grown about 6% under Biden and the number of employed foreign-born people in the workforce has grown 22%.
Under Trump, employed foreign-born people in the workforce decreased 1.6%, according to BLS data—but American-born employees in the workforce also fell about 1.4%.
The labor department’s foreign-born workers category includes legally immigrated workers, naturalized citizens, undocumented workers, refugees and temporary workers but it doesn’t provide data on how many fall into which group, meaning it’s not possible to say the increase in foreign-born people getting jobs in the U.S. shows an increase in illegal workers.
Job growth under Biden extends beyond a post-pandemic bounce back: In February 2020 there were 15.2 million non-farm employees in the U.S. compared to about 15.8 million now, marking about a 4.4% increase in total jobs, according to total nonfarm payrolls, the most-cited measure of total employment, which encompasses most American workers.
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Key Background
Trump has regularly claimed in recent months that jobs created under the Biden administration have gone to illegal immigrants. He made a similar claim as recently as last week, and in June and August. Both Biden and Trump claim they have done drastically better than the other in terms of the labor market, but White House policies are not the most influential factor on the labor market. Felix Koeing, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, recently told Forbes it’s “very difficult” to say whether changes in the labor market are the result of a certain presidential administration. The macroeconomic factors driving much of the labor market trends—including 2020’s increase in unemployment and labor shortages—were “not so unique to the U.S.,” meaning some of the changes “might just be coincidence” rather than the result of policy.
Tangent
The unemployment rate has also decreased under Biden, while it rose under Trump. During Trump’s presidency, unemployment jumped 1.7 percentage points from 4.7% to 6.4%. The most recent labor figures show it has declined 2.1 percentage points under Biden to 4.3%. In February 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5%.
Contra
Despite Biden overseeing a strong economy in which the country’s economic output grew strongly and jobs were recovered, polling suggests Americans preferred Trump’s economic policies. Just 19% of Americans believe they are financially better off since Biden took office, compared to 50% who feel worse off. Similarly, just 27% felt Biden’s economic policies have helped the economy while 49% feel they have hurt the economy. Under Trump, the stock market performed better—though both presidents had stronger-than-average gains—and inflation was lower. Federal debt is also more than 25% higher than when Biden took office, but it also rose 39% during Trump’s presidency.
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