The September jobs report, released a month and a half late thanks to the government shutdown, contained some positive news that the Trump administration has reason to brag about. But it also revealed weakness in the economy, further reflected in fresh polling that the White House should take as a warning.

Defying economic predictions, employers added 119,000 jobs in September and average wages continued to rise, outpacing inflation for the calendar year by about 1 percentage point. Labor force participation increased, as did production, while long-term unemployment fell. Most importantly, all the job gains since President Donald Trump took office have gone to native-born Americans, while all of the job losses have come from foreign-born workers, the opposite of what happened under President Joe Biden.