The Media Told You the Economy Was Collapsing and Then This Jobs Number Landed
Chuck Schumer went to the Senate floor in March to declare Trump's economy finished.
The private sector just added 62,000 jobs – blowing past Wall Street's expectations by more than 50 percent.
Here's what Schumer won't say out loud.
ADP Jobs Report March 2026: Small Businesses Led the Charge
ADP's March National Employment Report dropped Wednesday morning with a number that left the doom-and-gloom crowd scrambling.
Economists had forecast a gain of 40,000 jobs.
The private sector delivered 62,000.
Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees added 112,000 jobs on their own – carrying the entire report and then some.
That's the backbone of American commerce. Not Wall Street. Not government contractors. The hardware store owner, the HVAC company, the regional homebuilder.
Construction added 30,000 positions. Education and health services added 58,000 more. Information services added 16,000.
Those aren't abstract statistics. Those are Americans going to work.
"Overall hiring is steady, but job growth continues to favor certain industries, including health care," said ADP chief economist Dr. Nela Richardson. "In March, this solid performance was accompanied by a boost in pay gains for job-changers."
Job-changers are now seeing wage gains of 6.6 percent – up 0.3 percentage points from February. Workers who stayed put are seeing 4.5 percent raises.
What the Media Left Out of the March Jobs Report
Here's the context nobody will give you on MSNBC.
February's already-respectable 63,000 private sector jobs were revised upward to 66,000.
That means the labor market wasn't just strong in March – it was stronger in February than originally reported.
The media had a field day when the official Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed 92,000 government-included jobs lost in February. What they didn't mention: a major health care strike pulled tens of thousands of workers off payrolls in a single event, and brutal winter weather shut down construction sites across the Midwest and Northeast.
Temporary factors driving a temporary number.
The BLS drops its official March report Friday, April 3. Markets are closed for Good Friday, meaning traders can't react until Monday. Wall Street consensus is expecting 57,000 new jobs.
The ADP number suggests they should expect more.
Before Friday's Nonfarm Payrolls Drop This Is What You Need to Know
Context matters here.
Before April 2025, the American economy was averaging well over 100,000 new jobs a month. The Radical Left Democrats blamed tariffs for everything after that – the job slowdowns, the market volatility, all of it. Schumer, Pelosi, and their allies in the press built an entire narrative around the idea that Trump had broken the economy beyond repair.
The private sector just put up back-to-back months above 60,000 – beating expectations both times – with small businesses doing the heavy lifting.
That's not collapse. That's recalibration.
Trump's tighter immigration enforcement reduced the flood of foreign workers competing for American jobs. Fewer workers chasing the same positions means employers compete harder for the people already here. That competition shows up in your paycheck – and the 6.6 percent wage gains for job-changers this month show exactly that dynamic playing out.
Friday's BLS report will fill in the rest of the picture. If the private sector data is any guide, the story won't match the one Chuck Schumer was selling last month.
Sources:
- ADP Research, "ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 62,000 Jobs in March," PR Newswire, April 1, 2026.
- Jeff Cox, "Private sector added 62,000 jobs in March, above expectations, ADP says," Fox Business, April 1, 2026.
- Staff, "Private sector added 62,000 jobs in March, driven by small employers," UPI, April 1, 2026.
- Staff, "ADP: Employers Added 63K Jobs in March as Pay Edges Up," U.S. News & World Report, April 1, 2026.
