By Townhall Chicago News Staff
President Donald Trump said the U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs in October, according to an audio clip aired on a Fox News broadcast covering Friday’s jobs report.
Trump said the figure “smashed all expectations” and that “it’s through the roof,” adding that forecasters had predicted far fewer new jobs. The broadcast did not specify an exact consensus estimate.
Fox News anchor Paul Stevens, reporting separately on the same broadcast, said the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent and that U.S. stocks finished Friday’s trading session mixed.
The characterizations of the report as exceeding forecasts came from Trump directly; the broadcast did not include independent analysis of the underlying Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The jobs data aired on the same broadcast as segments covering the midterm elections and the change atop the White House chief of staff’s office, as economic and political news converged this week.
