Jobs report showing a higher than expected 130K gain.

This was after the White House tried to lower expectations.

Job growth was stronger than expected to start 2026, providing some relief to concerns about the state of the U.S. labor market.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 130,000 for January, above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 55,000, according to seasonally adjusted figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday.

Unemployment dipped a tenth of a percent and the broader number that includes those considered underemployed dipped by four tenths of a percent. Statistically speaking, something doesn't add up. It is more likely than not that we are actually seeing a lowering of the number of people in the job market due to the large export of illegal immigrants, both by deportation and by well over 100K leaving voluntarily each month. Along with the continued surge in boomers who are retiring and a lackluster amount of younger Americans joining the job market, it seems like we should be seeing a bigger decline in the unemployment number if we are truly still adding this number of jobs.

The other possibility is that many of these people being deported or self-deporting never held legitimate jobs that would be reported on by the BLS. They worked, they just did so under the table. Could be that we might have an illegal employment problem right now and that these open positions are not readily able to be opened to the legitimate public to take them. Perhaps. This would also explain why so many businesses in these sanctuary cities are having to close at least temporarily because of employment problems. My guess is that these businesses rely on illegals for both workers and for customers. Any loss of can be tremendously damaging.

You are now starting to see a full-throttled concept of these cities demanding that something be done to protect the economy that they have created on the backs of illegal immigration. They do not even hide the fact that their economy is contingent on not just these illegals, but on all of the money that is being sent by both state and federal coffers. Some are calling it an illegal economy, while I might just call it a subsidize economy. It cannot survive without subsidies, which are only given to certain people, and in most cases the laws and ethics need to be stretched to make these subsidies work to fund large portions of these sanctuary cities.

Off the subject a bit... but something isn't adding up here. Either way, once again the Trump economy is surprisingly resilient, something that cannot be said about Minneapolis and others dependent on handouts and fraud.