Trump praised for making Americans 'believe they can find work' after returning to the workforce

While President Donald Trump has been relentlessly criticized over his policies so far into his second term, the numbers tell a success story. Last year, the administration was overjoyed when the GDP had grown more than what had been predicted. Recently, the January employment report was released after a delay caused by the government shutdown, and it said that 130,000 jobs were added in a month, which is significantly higher than the 70,000 that were predicted earlier by Wall Street.

Some experts have strongly credited Trump’s big, beautiful bill for such positive numbers, including Patrice Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity. She does not believe that this was a one-time wonder, but rather the result of businesses getting the tax certainty they need to build, hire, and grow, thanks to the bill. She also claimed that this should boost confidence among Americans about where the economy was headed, as per a Fox News report.

"Workers are being drawn back into the labor force because they believe they can find work,” she said. "Also, the tax cuts will boost employment. As workers also realize just how much the Working Families Tax Cuts… rewards hard work through no taxes on tips and no taxes on overtime, it may draw people back into the labor force or encourage those already working to stack up earnings by increasing their hours and effort."

The unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, which is slightly lower than the 4.4% that was predicted by experts earlier. Even the Dow reached new heights recently, marking a strong start to the year for Trump as the President. "With the economy accelerating from just under 4% in Q2 to 4.4% in Q3, we are starting to see that growth show up in hiring. The Dow hitting new highs is great for those invested in the stock market, but job creation gets people on Main Street back to work,” Onwuka added.

However, while the administration might have been celebrating adding 130,000 new jobs, it is important to note that a vast majority of them were in the construction and healthcare fields. Other industries saw significant job losses. For example, retail trade lost 25,000 jobs, and financial activities lost 7,000. This did not come as a surprise to Onwuka, who said that retail job losses were a result of retailers letting go of additional employees that they had hired during the holiday season.

"Retail job losses are not surprising as retailers shed temporary, holiday season jobs that surged to accommodate the biggest holiday shopping season in history. Financial services experienced big job losses in 2025 due to high interest rates and AI replacing work. Americans should not be fearful of these narrow pockets of losses but see the growing opportunities in many industries that deliver middle-class and high-paying jobs in healthcare and personal services," she explained.

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