The Employment Situation Report is the federal government’s official monthly “jobs report.” It summarizes national data on employment, unemployment, hours, and earnings and is published under the title “The Employment Situation” by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an agency of the Department of Labor.
“Jobs added” refers to the month‑to‑month change in total nonfarm payroll employment measured by BLS’s establishment (payroll) survey, formally the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. BLS each month surveys about 121,000 businesses and government agencies (around 631,000 worksites) drawn from unemployment‑insurance payroll records. Using this sample, it estimates how many wage‑and‑salary jobs are on nonfarm payrolls in the pay period including the 12th of the month, then reports the net change from the previous month as the number of “jobs added” (or lost). A separate household survey (the CPS) in the same report is used mainly for unemployment rates, not the headline payroll-jobs change.
BLS calculates average weekly earnings for private‑sector ("total private") workers from the CES payroll survey. For each industry it collects: (1) total gross pay for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls during the pay period that includes the 12th of the month, and (2) total paid hours for those employees. Average hourly earnings = total payroll ÷ total hours; average weekly earnings = average hourly earnings × average weekly hours. The national figure shown in Table B‑3 of the Employment Situation is a weighted average of these industry values. A 4.2% rise in average private weekly earnings means that, compared with the start of the President’s term, the average private‑sector worker’s weekly paycheck (before taxes and after excluding irregular bonuses) is about 4.2% higher in dollar terms. For example, if the average was $1,200 per week, a 4.2% increase would bring it to roughly $1,250. As context, BLS data show total private average weekly earnings rising from $1,221.42 in November 2024 to $1,264.30 in November 2025 (about 3.5% over that 12‑month span).
The statement is dated December 16, 2025 and refers to “President Trump” and the “President’s first year in office.” Donald Trump’s second, non‑consecutive term began with his inauguration on January 20, 2025. In this context, “the President’s first year in office” means roughly the period from January 20, 2025 through January 19, 2026; the 4.2% wage‑growth figure is described as “on track” because, at the time of the November 2025 report, only data through late 2025 were available and the administration was projecting the full 12‑month change.
Yes. The monthly Employment Situation report includes a table that explicitly breaks out employment by nativity. Household-survey Table A‑7, “Employment status of the civilian population by nativity and sex,” shows labor‑force, employment, and unemployment figures separately for the foreign‑born and native‑born population (not seasonally adjusted). These data come from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the household component of the Employment Situation.
“Nonresidential construction” means construction of structures that are not private housing—such as office buildings, factories, warehouses, schools, hospitals, retail space, and many types of infrastructure. Growth in nonresidential construction can refer to (a) more activity or spending on these projects, typically measured by the Census Bureau’s monthly Construction Spending (Value of Construction Put in Place) data, which report the dollar value of nonresidential work done, and/or (b) more employment in nonresidential construction industries, as captured in BLS payroll data when the Employment Situation notes job gains in areas like nonresidential specialty trade contractors.
In the Employment Situation, “federal employment” is measured in the CES establishment (payroll) survey as the number of civilian federal government jobs on employer payrolls during the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. A job is counted if the employee received pay for any part of that period, including paid leave; people on unpaid leave for the whole pay period are not counted. The series excludes uniformed military personnel and certain intelligence agencies. BLS CES data show that federal government employment peaked at about 3.02 million in late 2024–early 2025 and then fell sharply; by November 2025 it stood at 2.744 million jobs, down 271,000 from the January 2025 peak and lower than any month back to at least November 2015. That supports the statement that federal employment was at its lowest level in over a decade as of November 2025.