“More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.”

The number is technically true, and almost always true, because the U.S. population keeps growing. Total employment hits new record highs nearly every month outside recessions; jobs have set fresh records almost every single month since employment recovered from the pandemic in mid-2022. FactCheck.org has called this Trump's "hollow statistic," one he has recycled since 2019.

What the boast hides is a weak year for job creation. The January 2026 jobs report, released two weeks before the speech, revised 2025 job growth down from 584,000 to just 181,000, which Indeed's Hiring Lab called "an exceptionally weak year by almost any standard."

Measures that account for population growth got worse, not better, under Trump: the employment-to-population ratio fell from 60.1% in January 2025 to 59.8% in January 2026, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, higher than when he took office. "The statement is correct, though the labor market's rate of growth has slowed sharply since Trump took office, and 2025 was the worst year for job creation since 2020. Excluding recessions, 2025 was actually the worst year for job creation since 2003." — NBC News fact check of the 2026 State of the Union, Feb. 25, 2026