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President Donald Trump said this week that his administration has reversed what he called the “migrant economy” created under President Joe Biden, stating that recent job gains are now benefiting American citizens.
Steve Miran, chair of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that since Trump returned to office in January, “all net job growth has gone to native-born Americans,” adding that the administration is “succeeding in creating hundreds of thousands of jobs … and they’re all going to native-born Americans.”
Recent employment data show nearly 1.4 million more native-born Americans were working in May than at the same time a year earlier. During the same two-month period from March to May, about one million foreign-born workers left the U.S. labor force, marking a sharp decline in migrant participation.
Supporters of the move argue it gives long-overdue priority to domestic workers and improves job opportunities for Americans who were sidelined under previous policies.
Wages have also ticked up modestly, with average hourly earnings rising by 0.4 percent in May. The White House pointed to the increase as evidence of a broader return to Trump-era economic trends, which emphasized rising incomes and reduced reliance on foreign labor.
The May 2025 Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the U.S. economy added 139,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May, consistent with the 12-month average and reflecting steady labor market growth. Job gains were concentrated in health care, which added 62,000 positions; leisure and hospitality, which increased by 48,000; and social assistance, which grew by 16,000. Federal government employment declined by 22,000.
The national unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent, with approximately 7.2 million people reported as unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed—those without work for 27 weeks or more—declined slightly. The labor force participation rate edged down to 62.4 percent, and the employment-population ratio remained essentially unchanged at 60.1 percent.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 15 cents in May, bringing the average to $36.24. Over the past 12 months, wages have grown by 3.9 percent.
