Economist Peter St Onge said the latest labor market numbers show continued strength in the American economy, particularly in blue-collar industries, as job growth outpaced expectations and unemployment remained stable.
According to St Onge, the economy added 115,000 jobs in April despite predictions that gains would be significantly lower.
“The American economy added 115,000 jobs last month, crushing expectations of just 65 considering our labor force is actually shrinking,” St Onge said.
He mocked media coverage surrounding the jobs report, arguing that many outlets had anticipated economic weakness during President Trump’s administration.
“Mainstream media was hardest hit, partly because AP journalists are losing their jobs to chat. GPT, so for them, it is a jobs Armageddon,” St Onge said.
He also accused legacy media organizations of rooting for an economic downturn.
“But also because legacy media has been praying to the Ouija board for a Trump crash, hoping Saturn will finally punish the peasants, not today,” St Onge said.
St Onge cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing stronger hiring growth compared to last year.
“In raw numbers, the VLS said, we gain 115,000 jobs in April, taking average payrolls this year to 76,000 a month, in gains, which is about double last year’s pace,” St Onge said.
He noted the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3 percent.
“That left the unemployment rate unchanged at a tame 4.3% where it’s been for roughly a year,” St Onge said.
According to St Onge, the strongest job growth occurred in blue-collar sectors including construction, manufacturing, transportation, mining and utilities.
“The biggest jump was 84,000 blue collar jobs, with growth in construction, manufacturing, retail, transport, warehousing, mining and utilities,” St Onge said.
At the same time, he said white-collar sectors experienced job losses.
“Set against a 17,000 job drop in white collar job so business services, tech and finance, along with an 8000 drop in federal jobs,” St Onge said.
He also pointed to layoffs in the entertainment industry.
“And 6000 jobs lost in Hollywood at this pace, the next Marvel movie will be a raccoon screaming in front of a green bedsheet,” St Onge said.
St Onge argued the data supports his belief that President Trump’s economic policies are creating what he called a “blue collar Renaissance.”
“Now I’ve been arguing Trump 2.0 is a blue collar Renaissance between factory onshoring, deportations and AI replacing cubicle jobs with physical jobs, which pushes up blue collar wages,” St Onge said. “Last month, nailed it.”
He cautioned that Bureau of Labor Statistics reports are often revised later, though he said the broader data still showed strength.
“Now take all this with a grain of salt, since the Bureau of Labor Statistics is notorious for reporting great headlines and then quietly revising them away,” St Onge said.
Still, he pointed to rising wages, increased working hours and strong quit rates as signs of labor market confidence.
“Wage growth is running three and a half percent on the year,” St Onge said. “Working hours are rising, a sign of future hiring. Quit rates are some of the best since 2014 meaning jobs are plentiful.”
St Onge also addressed concerns that tariffs and artificial intelligence would damage the labor market, arguing that both have had little negative effect on overall employment.
“Interestingly, two big canaries that did not sing all year are tariffs and AI both have had almost no impact on jobs,” St Onge said.
He said AI development is actually producing large numbers of construction and maintenance jobs tied to data center expansion.
“It was supposed to wipe out all the jobs until grandma’s on lonely fans, but in fact, building AI is creating more jobs than it’s taking,” St Onge said.
According to St Onge, nearly 3,000 data centers are either planned or already under construction across the country.
“But a typical data center requires four to 5000 blue collars to build,” St Onge said.
He cited estimates from PricewaterhouseCoopers projecting millions of construction jobs related to AI infrastructure projects.
“So Price Waterhouse pegs that at 4.7 million construction jobs through the AI build,” St Onge said.
St Onge argued the economy is increasingly splitting between high-paying physical labor jobs and struggling white-collar fields.
“This all means that over the next decade anyway, AI is creating more jobs, but the new jobs are high paid, blue collar jobs,” St Onge said.
He concluded by saying the labor market has remained resilient under President Trump despite federal layoffs, cuts to government-funded organizations and high interest rates.
“When the war ends and energy prices come back down, allowing fed cuts, we could get back to the stellar job growth of Trump’s first term that knocked unemployment into the low threes,” St Onge said.
WATCH: