Fox & Friends misrepresented the findings of a new report on the increase in low-wage jobs during the economic recovery to attack President Obama, failing to mention that the report cites cuts to public sector employment -- not Obama's economic policies -- as a major culprit for the post-recession net job loss. 

On the April 28 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox host Stuart Varney distorted the findings of a new National Employment Law Project (NELP) report as “the left pointing out the failures of President Obama's economic policies.” Co-host Steve Doocy described the report as “an eye-opener” and falsely claimed that The New York Times, which reported on the NELP study, is “turning on the White House”:

The newly released NELP study found that since the economic downturn, low-wage jobs have replaced higher-wage positions in the private sector. According to NELP, “lower-wage industries accounted for 22 percent of job losses during the recession, but 44 percent of employment growth over the past four years.” The report explained the growth of low-wage jobs during this recovery:

One year into the recovery, we noted that slow growth in higher-wage industries was likely the result of specific drivers of the Great Recession, including the housing bubble collapse and financial crisis, as well as a continuation of the long-term decline in durable and nondurable manufacturing and telecommunications. Three years later, mid- and higher-wage industries are adding jobs; albeit, not at a fast-enough rate to fill employment deficits in many cases (see Tables 1 and 2 in the Appendix). Nevertheless, four years into the recovery, growth remains strongest in low-wage, service-providing industries (e.g., retail, restaurants, and temporary help) and industries less affected by recessions (e.g., health and education). 

Contrary to Varney's claims that this report is a “critique from the Left,” the NELP report does not address the president's economic policies in any way. The only mention of economic policy in the report addresses budget cuts, specifically at the local level, as a “driver of unbalanced growth”:

Over the past four years, private sectors gains have been partially offset by public sector job losses resulting from budget cuts at the federal, state, and local levels. Net job losses totaled 627,000 across all levels of government during the recovery period. Employment declines were particularly severe at the local level, where education absorbed nearly three-quarters of the 378,000 net job losses over the past four years. (emphasis added)

Fox has previously championed budget cuts and falsely blamed the Obama administration with harming the economic recovery. Fox has also attacked the president's calls to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a cause firmly supported by NELP and numerous other groups. Fox's apparent interest in NELP's work only emerges when it fits with the network's obstructionist anti-administration narrative.