On Fox Business, former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore tries to reframe disappointing jobs report: “This is an absolutely booming economy right now”
Stephen Moore: “But my gosh, we have an economy that is so hot right now ... This is just a beautiful picture.”
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From the January 9, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria
MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Look, the jobs numbers are weaker than expected, Steve Moore, but the market is focused on what it will mean for the Federal Reserve, and whether or not the Fed is going to actually cut interest rates. If we had a report that was much better than expected, even though that would be good news, the market may have traded down, because of what it means for the Fed. Your analysis, Steve?
STEPHEN MOORE (FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER): Well, possibly. But I think the big story here is, look, you were asking earlier about 5% growth. My God, we just got a report from Fed Atlanta bank, that says we grew at 5.3% in the fourth quarter. This is an absolutely booming economy right now.
Now, the question is why aren't we creating more jobs. I think the answer is very simple — we have a severe labor shortage in America, we have more jobs available than the qualified skilled workers to fill them. You just ask people who run factories, run stores, run technology centers; they will tell you that they're having a hard time finding the workers to fill jobs.
But my gosh, we have an economy that is so hot right now, and that — look, the last three quarters, we had 3.8%, 4.3%, now looks like 5.3%. These are very strong numbers. And I expect as we see oil prices continue to fall, this is just a beautiful picture. Now, yeah, I'm disappointed at this job number, we'd like to see it higher. We've got to get more people in the work force.