The U.S. agricultural trade deficit widened further in July, highlighting the challenge facing President Donald Trump as he vows to reverse the trend.

Agricultural exports lagged imports by $4.97 billion in July, a gap 9% wider than a year earlier and the largest on record for the month. That pushed the sector’s deficit to an unprecedented $33.6 billion for the first seven months of the year, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The widening farm trade gap this year has been mostly driven by a jump in imports, just as Trump slapped tariffs on other countries in a push to shrink the overall deficit. That further cements a shift that has been building since the president’s first term, with a sector that has long run major trade surpluses becoming a consistent net importer.

The U.S. imported more than $132 billion in agricultural goods in the first seven months of 2025, almost 8% more than a year earlier. Meanwhile, the sector’s exports slid 1.3% to $98.8 billion, according to USDA data.

Household income up slightly last year

The income for the typical U.S. household barely rose last year and essentially matched its 2019 peak, the Census Bureau said Tuesday, a stark illustration of the impact that the pandemic inflation spike had on Americans’ finances.

The report also showed that the highest-earning households received healthy inflation-adjusted income increases, while middle- and lower-income households saw little gain.

Median household income, adjusted for inflation, in 2024 was $83,730, the Census Bureau said, a 1.3% increase from the previous year’s level of $82,690. The median is the midpoint between the highest- and lowest-income households, and helps filter out the impact of very high and very low incomes that can skew averages.

The figures help illustrate why many Americans have been dissatisfied with the economy since the pandemic, even as unemployment has been historically low: Median household incomes are essentially unchanged from five years earlier, the report showed. Median household income was $83,260 in 2019, the report said, and the slightly higher figure for 2024 is within the margin of error and therefore reflects little change from five years earlier, census officials said.

That is a sharp contrast from the preceding five-year period, from 2014 to 2019, when median household income rose nearly 21%, according to census data.

job market weaker than thought

The U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation’s economy.

Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The department issues the so-called benchmark revisions every year. They are intended to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. The numbers issued Tuesday are preliminary. Final revisions will come out in February.

The revision showed that leisure and hospitality companies — including hotels and restaurants — added 176,000 fewer jobs than originally reported, professional and business services companies 158,000 fewer and retailers 126,000 fewer.

The report comes after the department reported that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, adding to fears that President Trump’s erratic economic policies — including massive and unpredictable taxes on imports — have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire.

jobless claims are highest since 2021

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level in almost four years, indicating layoff activity may be on the rise amid a sharp slowdown in hiring.

Initial claims rose by 27,000 to 263,000 in the week that ended Sept. 6, the highest since October 2021, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.

Thursday’s figures follow a monthly report on employment, published on Sept. 5, which showed the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, extending the sharp slowdown in job growth seen in recent months.

Weekly filings can be volatile around holidays, and this week’s figures included the Labor Day weekend.

Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.