Near the start of his state of the union speech, President Donald Trump pointed to one of his greatest accomplishments: the robust labor market the American economy has maintained over the past two years.

Claim: “We have created 5.3 million new jobs.”

Verdict: True, counting jobs created since election day 2018.

Before the November 2016 election, there were 145,228,00 workers employed in the United States. After January’s robust 304,000 new jobs, there are 150,574,000 people working in America. That’s an increase of just over 5.3 million jobs.

﻿

Counting from January 2017, when Trump took office, the economy has created an impressive 4.9 million jobs.

The pace of job creation has been accelerating, defying predictions it would slow. In 2018, the economy added 228,000 jobs on average per month. Over the past three months, it has averaged 241,000 new jobs.