Jan. 9, 2026, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Executive Director Robert Romano today issued the following statement in response to the latest jobs numbers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
“After rising for 34 months, unemployment took a dip in December, with the unemployment rate dropping from a revised 4.5 percent down to 4.4 percent, and the unemployment level from 7.78 million down to 7.5 million, falling 278,000. This is great news for the economy, and could mean — although only time will tell — that peak unemployment might have been reached in November. For the current cycle, the unemployment level is currently up 1.75 million since January 2023, 1.3 million of which happened before President Trump was sworn into office.
“Looking at real-time data, continued jobless claims increased the week of December 27 by 56,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis and 323,000 on an unadjusted basis, but that’s rather normal right after Christmas. There could still be a little bit of time left on the cycle, and depending how the population adjustment is ascertained this month, next month’s jobs report could also show further uptick. The longest period for increasing unemployment in modern history was 39 months, from March 1989 to June 1992 when it rose 3.8 million to 10 million, so the current trend is bound to end likely sooner rather than later, if it did not just end altogether. That’s the good news, which is, whatever weakness economically arose out of the great inflation of the Biden era should almost be over.
“More good news comes from average weekly earnings, which are growing on an annual basis of 3.75 percent, still outpacing the current inflation rate of 2.7 percent.
“Going forward, if unemployment continues falling, more Americans will be finding jobs, moving into new rentals, buying homes and spending more money, and demand will increase. That’s usually when inflation begins to heat up again. How that manifests itself will depend greatly on the supply side of the equation. Are we growing more food? Breeding more cows? Overall, are markets being flooded with goods in the supplies necessary to keep inflation cool or to even help prices to fall? And will incomes and wages continue to stay ahead of inflation, as they have since mid-2023? If so, then the worst might be behind us, but it could still be a little while before the American people feel it.”
For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.
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