Biden’s Commerce Secretary Concedes: ‘A Lot’ of Retail Jobs Aren’t Coming Back

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo conceded in an interview that “a lot” of pre-pandemic jobs in the retail and service industries would not be returning.”

“The real issue, I think, is that a lot of the jobs that folks lost are the kinds of jobs, let’s say, for example, in retail or services industries, that are — might not be coming back or might not be coming back in the same numbers,” she said in an appearance on CNBC. “And so, what that means is, we have to lean into apprenticeships and job training and up-skilling.”

The comments came in the wake of Friday’s monthly job report, which found the United States economy added 850,000 jobs in June. Leisure and hospitality led the growth, accounting for 343,000 new jobs.

Overall unemployment nonetheless increased from 5.8 percent to 5.9 percent as a result of the uptick in Americans looking for work. About 6.8 million fewer Americans are working compared to February 2020, the last full month before shutdowns related to the Covid-19 pandemic went into effect.

Watch above via CNBC.