Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, one of President Donald Trump’s biggest media allies, pushed back when the administration’s upbeat jobs talk clashed with months of slowing data.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer appeared on Mornings With Maria on Friday to defend the administration as the government shutdown prevented the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from releasing its September jobs report.
Now in its third day, the government shutdown shows no signs of ending, with both Democrats and Republicans refusing to budge. The impasse has further strained the BLS which was shaken after Trump fired its commissioner in August over what he denounced as “rigged” data.
“We’ve been on a momentum of job gains… to only see it come to a screeching halt,” Chavez-DeRemer said, blaming Democrats for preventing the report’s publication. She argued that consumer confidence was rising and that businesses wanted to reinvest in their workers.
Bartiromo interrupted, pointing out that “we’ve had three months of slowing jobs,” and pressed whether the secretary could offer anything concrete about the current state of employment.
The exchange came as investors and economists voiced concern about the absence of official data. The BLS data, usually released on the first Friday of each month, serves as a benchmark for U.S. investors. Without it, analysts are leaning on private jobs data.
Data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday showed that September job announcements were the weakest in more than a decade. Continuing jobless claims have hovered near four-year highs, according to Labor Department figures reported by CNN.
FactSet consensus estimates suggested the economy likely added 50,000 jobs in September, compared with August’s preliminary 22,000. Within that, economists expected private-sector hiring of about 62,000 positions, offset by roughly 12,000 federal government job losses.
Long-term unemployment has also climbed: in August, 25.7 percent of jobless Americans had been out of work at least 27 weeks, the highest share since June 2016 outside the pandemic years, according to BLS data.
Earlier in September, Chavez-DeRemer issued a statement praising Trump’s “America First leadership” as she touted “positive signs for our economy.”
“Second-quarter GDP smashed many economists’ expectations, demonstrating strong growth and resilience. All job growth this year has been in the private sector among native-born Americans,” she said.