'Negative Numbers': Fox Business Awkwardly Copes With Abysmal Jobs Report
The U.S. economy shed 92,000 positions last month, pushing the unemployment rate up to 4.4 percent, per Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics release. The February report painted a picture of a labor market deteriorating much faster than anticipated, catching economists off guard — analysts had forecast a gain of around 60,000 jobs, even as they correctly predicted the 4.4 percent unemployment figure.
Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump has repeatedly insisted that he's heralded us into the "Golden Age," so it was awkward with President Fox News Grandpa's abysmal jobs numbers being read on Fox Business. Host Maria Bartiromo and Cheryl Casone are trying to cope with today's report showing negative numbers for February.
"So we have a negative number for February non-farm payrolls," Casone said. "A loss of 92,000 jobs. You can see the market reacting. We are also seeing the unemployment rate tick up to 4.4 percent."
"A loss of factory jobs of 12,000," she continued. "Government jobs, a loss of 6,000. Private sector jobs, a loss of 86,000."
"Average hourly earnings up 3.8 percent, which is better than expected, but obviously the headline here is what we're seeing within the report," she continued. "We also got a negative read on January retail sales, two-tenths of a percent to the downside, but I do want to say again it is the jobs report."