Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo pressed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on Friday about “slowing” job growth during an interview.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Labor for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The ongoing government shutdown in Washington, D.C., means the latest jobs reports will be delayed, as lawmakers continue to work to reach a deal to reopen the federal government. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is among the agencies affected by the shutdown. The report on Friday would have revealed the employment numbers for September after President Donald Trump fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer after disappointing numbers in August.
What To Know
During her interview appearance, Chavez-DeRemer criticized Democrats over the government shutdown, which she warned is a “screeching halt” for the American people.
Reopening government is the best way to get the jobs report out, she said.
“We’ve been on a momentum of job gains,” she said. “We have been working so hard across the country to make sure we are growing this economy and really having the workforce investments that we’ve been doing, to only see it come to a screeching halt. While we’re not going to get the job numbers report because they won’t open the government, we want to keep the momentum going.”
Bartiromo responded by pressing the secretary about the latest job numbers as economists viewed the latest reports as having more limited job gains than anticipated.
“You know the data though. You know where we are. We’ve had three months of slowing jobs. We don’t have the job numbers for September, but is there anything you can tell us about the jobs picture today?” Bartiromo asked.
Chavez-DeRemer touted investments from companies into the U.S. and that confidence in the American economy has grown.
“All of the indicators that you’ve seen from your economists on this show that we’re heading in the right direction. While we’ve seen the numbers kind of hold steady, the goal is to not stop the momentum,” she said.
The Labor Department said last month that 22,000 new jobs were added in August, down from 79,000 in July. Economists viewed the report as disappointing. In response to this, Trump announced he had fired McEntarfer.
An ADP jobs report released this week estimated that the U.S. economy lost 30,000 jobs in September, though some economists have noted that report does not always end up aligning with the official numbers.
Chavez-DeRemer addressed this on CNN as well, pointing to the economic situation “inherited from the Biden administration.”
“We’ve seen the growth in all other indicators. We see that the GDP is up. We see that real wages are up. We’ve seen the blue collar boom,” she said. “What we are also seeing on the ground is a lot of these companies are investing in their workforce.”
What People Are Saying
White House spokesperson Kush Desai previously told Newsweek: “Industry leaders ranging from Apple to Merck to TSMC have announced trillions in historic investment commitments to make and hire in America as a result of President Trump’s tariffs. The Administration is working hard to clean up Joe Biden’s economic disaster with an aggressive pro-growth agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and energy abundance. As these policies and investments continue to take effect, the American people can rest assured that the best is yet to come – especially once the Federal Reserve finally cuts interest rates.”
Brendan Greeley, contributing editor at the Financial Times, told MSNBC on Tuesday: “The employment report, which comes out the first Friday of every month, is the single most important piece of economic information that we get. Markets look to it; stocks trade on it; the Fed follows it, because it is the one thing that means the most to Americans.”
What Happens Next?
The Senate was set to reconvene Friday to vote on bills to fund the government and end the shutdown, but it’s unclear whether lawmakers will be able to reach a consensus this week.