Trump’s Piecemeal Approach to Saving Jobs Doesn’t Work

President Trump has tried to claim that he can help the middle-class by making one-off Carrier-style deals to “save” 800 jobs. The reality is the President has failed to offer a comprehensive plan to make sure good jobs are available to everyone who wants one in America. As discussed in a recent article in the New York Times, many similar workers were left behind by the President.

In fact, layoffs and discharges have not declined since President Trump took office. As seen in the graph above, layoffs and discharges of U.S. workers add up to approximately 1.6 million lost jobs every month — a trend on which President Trump does not seem to be having any effect. To put this in context, in order to save these 1.6 million jobs, Trump would need to do the equivalent of 2,000 Carrier deals every month. This would be a near impossible goal to achieve even if the entire administration focused on nothing else besides making Carrier-style deals. Instead, since President Trump assumed office, U.S. employers have given advance notice of plans to lay off more than 75,000 workers.

Of course, layoffs and discharges do not occur in a vacuum. Most Americans who lose their jobs go on to find new ones: as shown in the graph above. For Donald Trump really to be the jobs president, he will need to focus on increasing hires and not just preventing 0.05 percent of the layoffs and discharges American workers experience each month. We need a real plan to support workers, families, and businesses as the economy changes.