Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: A little less an hour ago, we got US jobs
Speaker 2: data coming in at two hundred and six thousand. The
Speaker 2: unemployment rate goes from four percent to four point one percent,
Speaker 2: with a big revision for the months prior. For the
Speaker 2: Biden administration's take on the US jobs report, we are
Speaker 2: joined now by Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Sue. Julie,
Speaker 2: let me just get your first take on these numbers.
Speaker 3: It's another very solid jobs report, two hundred and six
Speaker 3: thousand jobs created, bringing the total since President Biden came
Speaker 3: into office to nearly sixteen million. I've been here before
Speaker 3: talking about the unemployment rate. We had an unemployment rate
Speaker 3: out of below four percent for the longest stretch since
Speaker 3: Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon, and it's ticked
Speaker 3: up slightly now, partly because we also see an increase
Speaker 3: in labor force participation rate among prime age workers. People
Speaker 3: coming into labor market looking for jobs. It's taking them
Speaker 3: a little bit longer to find them. But we're seeing
Speaker 3: a balance between supply and demand when it comes to
Speaker 3: workers looking for jobs and employers finding what they need.
Speaker 3: All signs of a strong, steady economy.
Speaker 2: The obvious flaw in some of these numbers. Secretary, So
Speaker 2: you might be the fact that we've had big revisions
Speaker 2: for the months prior one hundred and eleven thousand, when
Speaker 2: you look at some of the months prior, do you
Speaker 2: look at today's data and say, you know, we might
Speaker 2: expect another revision that perhaps some of the rosiness of
Speaker 2: it seems to kind of be undermined with each next
Speaker 2: month of data that comes in and some of the
Speaker 2: revisions that come in.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad you asked that question, because revisions are
Speaker 3: part of.
Speaker 1: The numbers that come out. They've always been part of
Speaker 1: the numbers.
Speaker 3: It's why we're able to put out numbers every single
Speaker 3: month and then adjust them to make sure that data
Speaker 3: that comes in later is incorporated into it. That's why
Speaker 3: we don't just look at one month's data. That's why
Speaker 3: we look at trends. If you look at by any measure,
Speaker 3: since twenty twenty one, when the president came into office,
Speaker 3: if you look at the last three months trend no
Speaker 3: matter how you slice it, the pie is getting bigger.
Speaker 3: There are more jobs in the economy, more workers are
Speaker 3: getting these jobs, and the real wages are up so
Speaker 3: that that means that more working people are also having
Speaker 3: breathing room to be able to live.
Speaker 1: Those are all not accidents.
Speaker 3: Those are all very much fundamental to President Biden's vision
Speaker 3: of how you build a strong America.
Speaker 2: But it is an unemployment rate that did move higher
Speaker 2: July four point one percent. And this is what a
Speaker 2: lot of people have pointed to that rarely does a
Speaker 2: labor market move in a linear fashion. The concern is
Speaker 2: if unemployment is moving higher, then a nonlinear move could
Speaker 2: be what's next on the cards? What gives you the
Speaker 2: confidence that that strength will continue and you won't see
Speaker 2: a precipitous move that goes from slightly soft to something
Speaker 2: more pernicious.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I'll answer it this way.
Speaker 3: Four point one percent still remains a very very low
Speaker 3: unemployment rate. Our economic recovery under President Biden has been
Speaker 3: the most robust anywhere in the world, and so that
Speaker 3: four point one percent, it is slightly up from before.
Speaker 3: But looking at all historic measures, especially looking at recoveries
Speaker 3: from past economic crises, it is athlete historic in nature,
Speaker 3: and that did not happen by accident.
Speaker 1: Right, It was not inevitable.
Speaker 3: Most people bet against it, but President Biden said, if
Speaker 3: we invest big in America, we can pull ourselves out
Speaker 3: of the pandemic, prevent economic.
Speaker 1: Scarring, and those investments.
Speaker 3: One reason I'm confident is that those investments are just
Speaker 3: getting started. The presence Investing America agenda is putting more
Speaker 3: money into communities for roads, bridges, clean drinking water, for
Speaker 3: high speed, reliable internet. We are tackling our climate crisis.
Speaker 3: We're putting more wages into workers' pockets. Just this past week,
Speaker 3: a million more workers became eligible for overtime pay because
Speaker 3: of this president's economic policies. Just this past week, we
Speaker 3: put in place the first nationwide proposed standard to protect
Speaker 3: workers from the hazards of heat.
Speaker 1: All of these are forward.
Speaker 3: Going policies that make me confident that building an economy
Speaker 3: in which no one gets left behind and workers do
Speaker 3: well is not only possible, it's the only option for
Speaker 3: this president, I.
Speaker 1: Think for this market.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of uncertainties about twenty twenty five. I
Speaker 2: know there's a lot of drama happening in DC this
Speaker 2: weekend with Team Biden and what happens with that and
Speaker 2: the election itself.
Speaker 1: It's always periods of uncertainty.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to ask you about that directly because
Speaker 2: I know that you don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2: But when you think about this labor market and what
Speaker 2: we call the fog of twenty twenty five, how do
Speaker 2: you deal with that and think about that with still
Speaker 2: the outcomes unknown and again, as you say, policy is
Speaker 2: still needing to work out, how do you think about
Speaker 2: that policy when again we don't know what twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five looks like.
Speaker 1: No, we don't know.
Speaker 3: You're right, but I'm happy to talk about it because
Speaker 3: if we want to talk about the fog, the real
Speaker 3: fog is let's look back.
Speaker 1: At twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: In July this day in twenty twenty, the unemployment rate
Speaker 3: was almost twelve percent.
Speaker 1: For July fourth, Americans were told to stay.
Speaker 3: Home, stay away from people because we had a pandemic
Speaker 3: that was out of control with no national strategy to
Speaker 3: address it.
Speaker 1: This president has turned that all around.
Speaker 3: We've been talking month after month about is the jobs
Speaker 3: number too high?
Speaker 1: Is it too hot? Is it going to cool?
Speaker 3: And each time the answer is that we are moving
Speaker 3: to a stable, steady economic growth economy. And that is
Speaker 3: exactly what the President said could be done with the
Speaker 3: right vision, with the right economic strategy and the right delivery.
Speaker 3: So there's no drama here on this side. We know
Speaker 3: that what we have put in place is working, and
Speaker 3: we just know that we.
Speaker 1: Have to keep at it.
Speaker 2: And Julie, I know you've discussed this idea before that
Speaker 2: yes there is strength. However, it is not necessarily an
Speaker 2: American populace that sees that strength. A lot of these
Speaker 2: sentiment surveys that we see tend to show a weakening,
Speaker 2: and they've showed a real substantial weakening, and the more
Speaker 2: recent ones we've got, some of the explanations have been
Speaker 2: because of medical uncertainty that we were just discussing of
Speaker 2: not knowing what things look like. So does the messaging
Speaker 2: need to change, especially at this very crucial moment where
Speaker 2: Biden's survival is put into question for this election? Is
Speaker 2: the current messaging working? You think? On this labor market
Speaker 2: and the strength of the economy, I mean, I can.
Speaker 3: Say what I see right one is again I come
Speaker 3: here to talk about the jobs numbers, and I'm very
Speaker 3: proud to say again, none of these numbers, non of
Speaker 3: these outcomes were inevitable. They required solid leadership and strong
Speaker 3: economic strategy.
Speaker 1: We've seen past recoveries. They were not like this.
Speaker 3: Right, The jobs that have been created under this president
Speaker 3: are more than have been created under any president in
Speaker 3: the same time period in history. When you look at
Speaker 3: what he and we inherited that is, it's really incredible.
Speaker 3: But I also think this is why I travel the country, right,
Speaker 3: this is why I've launched Good Job Summer, where I'm
Speaker 3: going across the country to talk about the need for
Speaker 3: good jobs in every single community. And what I see
Speaker 3: there is workers who want to work, Americans with tremendous
Speaker 3: talent that they want to put to use, and training programs,
Speaker 3: community college connections, investments that.
Speaker 1: Are creating those good jobs.
Speaker 3: We see them in the job's numbers, but I see
Speaker 3: them when I travel and what the real impact is
Speaker 3: and I think we see those sentiments surveys starting to
Speaker 3: turn to But when I talk to American workers and
Speaker 3: America's families, they see a president who cares about them,
Speaker 3: who sees them, who knows that they're not invisible, and
Speaker 3: is willing to do the hard work to make life
Speaker 3: better for them.
Speaker 2: Secretary, who, we really appreciate your time this morning. Hopefully
Speaker 2: you can enjoy a little bit of the July fourth festivities.
Speaker 2: Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Sue There