“There are more people working today than at any time in the history of our country.”

In a Feb. 4, 2026 NBC News interview, President Trump said there are more people working today than at any time in the history of the country.

That is accurate: BLS reported about 158.6 million people employed in January 2026, the most on record. But total employment sets new highs in most months simply because the population grows. More telling measures softened - the employment-to-population ratio fell from 60.1% in January 2025 to 59.8% in January 2026, and job growth over Trump's first year (about 359,000) was well below the roughly 1.2 million added in Biden's final year.

The raw record is real; the missing context is that job growth slowed relative to population.