Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: As we welcome now are Bloomberg TV and radio audiences
Speaker 2: to parse this report on. Please to say, we welcome
Speaker 2: Acting Labor Secretary Julie Sue. And let's just go through
Speaker 2: some of the numbers here. I know you're well aware
Speaker 2: of what happened at age thirty, But the unemployment rate
Speaker 2: it actually edged down to four point two percent. That
Speaker 2: was its first decline in five months. Payrulls only rose
Speaker 2: by one hundred and forty two thousand jobs. That leaves
Speaker 2: the three month average at the lowest since mid twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: So job's growth, and it is growth, it's weakening. Is
Speaker 2: that a concern for the administration two months away from
Speaker 2: the election?
Speaker 1: Hi, it's good to be here with you. I would
Speaker 1: say that this is another job report that indicates that
Speaker 1: we are continuing to see stable growth. It's jobs numbers
Speaker 1: are still up, the unemployment rate take down slightly, as
Speaker 1: you've already mentioned, labor force participation remains steady, earnings are up.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a continued sort of the steady
Speaker 1: transition to an economy in which we're continuing to see
Speaker 1: people come into labor market and find jobs, and you
Speaker 1: know it's a transition to more stability.
Speaker 2: And I know that you're not going to opine on
Speaker 2: what the FED should do from here, but of course
Speaker 2: the concern is out there that we could see this
Speaker 2: weakening turn into a real deterioration if we don't see
Speaker 2: the FED lower interest rates from here, the current policy rate.
Speaker 2: Do you think that that's out of step with the
Speaker 2: economic reality in the labor market?
Speaker 1: No, I mean, and you're right, we don't comment on
Speaker 1: what the Fed will do. But again, I think overall,
Speaker 1: this is another month of many months in which I've
Speaker 1: come here and we've talked about how we continue to
Speaker 1: see job growth. Right, the numbers are still up. We're
Speaker 1: continue to see growth in various industries. We see construction, healthcare, leisure,
Speaker 1: and hospitality.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: These are all signs of an economy reaching a normal, steady,
Speaker 1: stable state. And we want to continue to create the
Speaker 1: investments that are leading to this kind of job creation.
Speaker 1: And the President will be traveling to Michigan later today
Speaker 1: to announce an executive order that is ensuring that we're
Speaker 1: not just counting the number of jobs, we're also making
Speaker 1: sure that these jobs are good jobs where families can
Speaker 1: get ahead, where people can make a steady income, where
Speaker 1: they can retire with dignity. And so these are all
Speaker 1: part of the economy that the President promised when he
Speaker 1: came to office, and the economy that these numbers reflect well.
Speaker 2: Building on that, Julie, let's take a look at the
Speaker 2: specifics at the sector level. Because you take a look
Speaker 2: at the manufacturing industry, it lost twenty four thousand jobs.
Speaker 2: The estimate had been for a reduction of two thousand jobs,
Speaker 2: and actually the last three or four reports, I believe
Speaker 2: that sector has shed jobs. So what's the current view
Speaker 2: on why employment in manufacturing has been weakening?
Speaker 1: So I would say cumulatively, again, the number of manufacturing
Speaker 1: jobs created since the Bidenhairs administration began is over seven
Speaker 1: hundred thousand jobs. This is also part of the promise
Speaker 1: that we will make things in America again, from semiconductors
Speaker 1: to electric vehicle batteries. The idea is that American workers
Speaker 1: are the best in the world and they can and
Speaker 1: should be making things. The investments that are going into
Speaker 1: communities are also using American made steel by American union
Speaker 1: workers and raw materials mined by American union workers. And
Speaker 1: so you know, the the the the job growth that
Speaker 1: we have seen, which again was not promised. Most people
Speaker 1: predicted that it would not happen the way that it has.
Speaker 1: UH is not happening by accent. It's happening because of
Speaker 1: real investments and a commitment to job growth. So when
Speaker 1: you look at the overall trends, manufacturing has gone up
Speaker 1: since the President came to office, A construction had UH
Speaker 1: significant growth over this last month. And that is also
Speaker 1: no accident.
Speaker 2: And I also want to get your perspective, of course,
Speaker 2: on some snaff foos if you want to call them,
Speaker 2: that that have happened at the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Speaker 2: when it comes to data releases, because there have been
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about fair access and distribution of
Speaker 2: economic data, fallowing of course the February super users incident.
Speaker 2: We had the early release of inflation data in May,
Speaker 2: and then last month there was that delay to the
Speaker 2: payroll revisions figures last month. What steps is the BLS
Speaker 2: explicitly taking to address those missteps?
Speaker 1: So the BLS has addressed those head on. We obviously
Speaker 1: believe in transparent and timely release of data to everybody.
Speaker 1: That is why I come on that is why we
Speaker 1: release the data each month the way that we do,
Speaker 1: and so the BLS has attacked those issues head on
Speaker 1: to ensure that they do not happen again. You know,
Speaker 1: the fact that some of the information came out in
Speaker 1: you know, not in the way that we exactly would
Speaker 1: have liked in terms of their timing of release, certainly though,
Speaker 1: doesn't take away from the fact that this data remains
Speaker 1: the gold standard for how we judge the health of
Speaker 1: our economy, how we look at you know, job growth,
Speaker 1: the unemployment rate, and and and changes to industries when
Speaker 1: it comes to the labor market.
Speaker 2: Well, Secretary, I'd love to get a little bit more
Speaker 2: detail on what that looks like that head on addressing
Speaker 2: I mean, are you considering going back to lock ups?
Speaker 2: Are you potentially firing people here or hiring more? What
Speaker 2: does that look like?
Speaker 1: I mean, we've definitely put in place, you know, to
Speaker 1: the extent that some of them were technical issues, right
Speaker 1: addressing those issues again, we are absolutely committed to timely
Speaker 1: and uniform release of data. You know, each of these
Speaker 1: incidents were really you know, different, but we are taking
Speaker 1: a systematic look at how to make sure that they
Speaker 1: don't happen in.
Speaker 2: The future, and while I still have you, I am
Speaker 2: I asked about higher specifically because I spoke to former
Speaker 2: Fed economists Claudia Sam the day after that payroll revision
Speaker 2: slay and see me at the point that the BLS
Speaker 2: is underfunded, and of course our reporting and other news
Speaker 2: agencies have reported something similar. So I'll put that question
Speaker 2: to you, does the BLS need a bigger budget?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, certainly nobody wants to see all
Speaker 1: parts of the Department of Labor adequately funded for the
Speaker 1: important work that we do than I. But I'll also
Speaker 1: say to that question about the Psalm rule and what
Speaker 1: it means, you know, a lot of that is about
Speaker 1: looking at historical data to judge what is happening now.
Speaker 1: And I think what we've seen is that what's happened
Speaker 1: before isn't necessarily a good gauge for what is going
Speaker 1: on here today. Right the post pandemic economic recovery, the
Speaker 1: historically low levels of unemployment for such a long period
Speaker 1: of time, and the investments that are being made that
Speaker 1: have really shaken up the job market in positive ways,
Speaker 1: and so overall, the many indicators are continuing to show
Speaker 1: that we are the economy is growing and the economy
Speaker 1: is strong, and either way, obviously it's important for us
Speaker 1: to keep on reporting the facts as they come out.
Speaker 2: Secretary, really appreciate you taking the time on what I
Speaker 2: know is a busy morning. Our big thanks, of course,
Speaker 2: Acting Labor Secretary Julie Sue