DAVID MASTIO: Dismal new job numbers might be a sign of Trump’s successes, not failures.

So far under Trump, federal government employment is down 97,000 jobs. It was down 15,000 jobs just in August and it is going to keep going down as those who have already been fired, but are still getting severances, still count as employed. State government employment in August was down 13,000 too, which may reflect cuts to state government grants. And those numbers come as parts of the federal government that Trump likes, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement are on unprecedented hiring sprees.

The Trump administration also has cut tens of billions of dollars (maybe hundreds of billions) in nonprofit grants, on which the government spends a fortune. The BLS doesn’t report monthly numbers in the nonprofit sector, but you can expect that these cuts are having a big impact in the government-adjacent parts of the economy. One clue in the data is that “Religious, grant-making, civic, professional and similar organizations” employment fell 3,000 in August. In recent months, the federal government has rounded up tens of thousands of often-employed undocumented immigrants all over the country in industries from construction and agriculture to transportation and manufacturing. That’s a net negative for job growth too. Employment among Hispanics was down 15,000 jobs in August according to the new BLS data. . . .

I am no fan of Trump’s mercantilist economic policies, but any analysis of these job numbers has to consider how much of this is a sign of MAGA success, not economic disaster.

Millei’s Argentina entered a short, sharp recession when his policies were enacted before roaring back.

Related: Joel Kotkin: Don’t judge Trump’s economic agenda on one jobs report.