Fox Host Presses Trump Labor Secretary on Weak Jobs Numbers: Would You ‘Admit’ to Being ‘Disappointed?’
Fox Business host Stuart Varney spoke to Trump Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on Friday after August’s jobs numbers came in well below expectations and July and June’s numbers were revised down.
August only saw 22,000 jobs added to the economy, way below the 75,000 jobs that many expected. June, meanwhile, was revised down to negative territory, the first month to see job losses since the pandemic.
“Do tariffs have anything to do with this slowing job market?” Varney asked.
“Tariffs are working. I’ve been on the road, as you know, in 32 states out of my 50-state tour. Tariffs are working. How do I know this? Because companies are reinvesting in the American workforce,” Chavez-DeRemer replied, adding:
We’re seeing the consumer confidence up. We’re seeing real wages up year over year, almost 4%. Real wages are up. Blue collar boom—I talk about it. It seems like something that is rhetoric, but it’s not because that’s what we’re seeing on the ground. Blue-collar wages are up 1.4%. Unemployment is still holding steady. Statistically, it’s non-existent. So that’s the key to the American people is that we’re leaning in, we’re doing everything we can for this workforce. And now this is one more thing that the Fed can do, and Jerome Powell hasn’t done his job, and the president—that’s why he’s been so vocal about this. We need those interest rates down.
“Would you admit to being just a little disappointed by this weakening job market?” Varney followed up.
“Well, 22,000 jobs underperformed just a bit, but it’s still in the positive. Almost a half a million jobs have been created since the president took office. It’s gonna take some time. But again, when everybody’s working for the American people and the American worker and somebody chooses not to, and they’re instrumental in those decisions that affect the market, that affect wage growth, that affect all of those things—do your job. And I know that the president’s not gonna let up on this, and neither am I,” replied Chavez-DeRemer.
“The manufacturing jobs in this latest report, down twelve thousand. Don’t think the government, the president wants to see that, does he?” added Varney.
“No, absolutely not. What he wants to see is the reinvestment in the workforce and manufacturing, and construction. That’s where we need the skilled training,” Chavez-DeRemer responded, adding:
That’s why I’m on the road to understand that we’re going to make America skilled again. So as these companies continue to invest, eight trillion is already being invested and we’re gonna see more and more of that. We’re gonna need that workforce so those job numbers go up. I’ll be working with our state partners and I know I’ve said this over and over again. We’re going to get those funds to our respective state partners, be the best federal partner we can be so that the workforce is ready to go as soon as they are needed. And so yes, it’s gonna take some time.
This job, it takes hard work, the president leading the way, and we’re gonna continue to lean in and make America, you know, skilled again. And what I do love to see is those hundred thousand jobs of federal workers that have gone down, and we are going to grow at the private sector jobs. Eighty-four percent of the jobs out of the half a million are from the private sector, and we want to continue to see that investment by those businesses.
Watch the clip above via Fox Business.
