‘An Economic Stunner!’ CNN Anchor Shocked by ‘Recession-Level’ Jobs Data Ahead of Trump’s First Full Employment Report

CNN anchor John Berman was shocked by a new report showing the worst February jobs data since 2009 just days before the first full monthly employment report of President Donald Trump’s second term is made public.

President Donald Trump and DOGE czar Elon Musk have been chainsawing federal government jobs and Trump’s trade policy has been tanking the stock market this week, so xpectations for Friday’s jobs report were already all over the place.

But Challenger, Gray & Christmas dropped a bombshell report Thursday morning that showed a 245% increase in announced layoffs from January to February, and the worst February since 2009.

On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN News Central, Berman teased the news by calling it “an economic stunner” and went on to blame the report for “wild swings” in the stock market:

JOHN BERMAN: More breaking news. An economic stunner. A new report that U.S. employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009. And then a dramatic rescue caught on camera a car in flames on the side of the road before an officer springs into action. I’m John Berman with Sarah Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

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All right. A little more on the breaking news this morning on this really stunning jobs report. U.S. employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009. Its recession levels spike and layoffs.

This report comes from Challenger Gray & Christmas. They say it is the 12th highest monthly total in the 32 years challenger has been tracking jobs cuts.

The 11 others– and four of them came during the pandemic– All occurred when the U.S. was in recession.

With us now, Bakari Sellers and political commentator, and Matt Mowers, he is a former Trump administration official and president of Valcourt Global Public Strategy.

And friends, I want to put up stock futures because the markets did not like this report. Reacted very sharply.

We can see, I think hopefully soon. There we go. Wild swings downward. The Dow, the NASDAQ, the S&P all down more than 1%. They were up a little bit yesterday on the whole tear up back and forth. But for the week Bakari they are way down.

Watch above via CNN News Central.