US just lost 23,000 jobs — Bessent says, ‘we don’t need as many jobs’ amid deportations
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States does not need to create as many jobs as it did in the past because deportations and lower immigration under President Donald Trump have reduced the size of the workforce.
Speaking to CNBC last week, Bessent was asked about signs that the US job market is weakening. He called monthly jobs data “noisy” and said the smaller number of available workers means the economy does not need to add as many jobs.
“The jobs that we’re seeing are going to Americans,” Bessent said. He added that after the deportations carried out under Trump and tighter controls at the southern border, “we don’t need to produce as many jobs.”
His comments drew criticism online. Critics argued that the administration was treating a weaker job market as a positive development. One commentator compared the argument to a restaurant losing half its customers and then saying it simply needs fewer waiters.
US job market shows signs of weakness
Bessent’s comments came just days after a disappointing jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, far below Wall Street expectations of around 80,000 new jobs. It was also a sharp change from June, when the economy added 20,000 jobs.
The numbers for the previous two months were also revised down by a combined 103,000 jobs. That showed that the job market had lost much more momentum than earlier reports suggested.
The unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.1%. But economists said that did not necessarily mean the labor market was getting stronger. The rate fell partly because fewer people were working or actively looking for jobs.
Wage growth also slowed. Average hourly earnings were up 3.2% from a year earlier, the slowest increase since May 2021.
US government jobs took the biggest hit
Much of July’s job loss came from a few major sectors.
Government employment fell by around 53,000 jobs, making it the biggest drag on the monthly figures. Leisure and hospitality lost about 40,000 jobs, while retail and financial activities also saw declines.
Healthcare and social assistance continued to add workers. Construction also recorded a small increase, making these two of the few areas where employment was still growing.
However, the July numbers were not as weak across the board as the headline figure suggested.
Private-sector employment actually increased by about 30,000 jobs. Some of the government job losses were also due to seasonal changes in local education employment and could be revised in future reports.
Still, the overall trend remains worrying. The average number of jobs added over the past three months has fallen to around 20,000 a month.
That is a major drop from the post-pandemic hiring boom, when the US economy was adding around 400,000 jobs a month between 2021 and 2023.
Bessent’s Immigration argument
Bessent’s argument is based on the idea that fewer immigrants in the country means there are fewer people competing for jobs. If the workforce becomes smaller, he argues, the economy naturally needs fewer new jobs to keep employment stable.
The Trump administration has made a similar argument before.
Trump claimed during a prime-time address that “100 percent” of net job creation since he returned to office had gone to American-born workers. He had previously argued that migrants had taken all of the net job growth before he was elected.
According to border czar Tom Homan, the administration deported around 579,000 people in 2025. It also reduced refugee and humanitarian admissions and moved to remove legal protections from more than a million immigrants who had temporary status.
Some economists believe 2025 could become the first year in at least 50 years in which more immigrants left the US than entered the country.
Pew Research Centre, using Census Bureau data, found that more than 1.2 million immigrants left the US labor force between January and July last year alone. Foreign-born workers make up around one-fifth of the US labor force.
Economists question whether Americans are taking those jobs
Economists have pushed back against the idea that removing immigrant workers automatically creates more opportunities for American-born workers.
A study published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research looked at the labour-market impact of immigration enforcement under the current administration.
Their findings showed that large increases in deportations did not lead to more job offers for American-born workers. Wages for those workers also remained largely unchanged even as employment among immigrants fell.
Another study by economists at the Brookings Institution estimated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations had cost the US economy around 668,000 jobs across both immigrant and US-born workers.
Research from Brookings and the centre-right American Enterprise Institute found that losing foreign-born workers could push monthly US job growth close to zero or even into negative territory in the coming years.
Deportations could hit US-born workers too
The potential impact could become much larger if the administration carries out its broader deportation plans. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that deporting 4 million people over four years could result in 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed US-born workers.
Some industries could be hit especially hard, including construction and child care.
The effects could also be largest in states with large immigrant populations, including California, Florida, New York and Texas.
So far, there is little evidence that US-born workers are filling all the jobs left by immigrants. The next jobs report will offer another test, though Bessent himself has warned that monthly data can be “noisy.”