Name: US Jobs Report Shows Steady Growth, Su Says
Uploaded: 2024-09-06T14:59:45.000Z
Duration: 7 min 12 s
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Welcome now our Bloomberg TV and radio audiences.

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To parse this report I'm pleased to say we welcome Acting Labor Secretary Julie Hsu.

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And let's just go through some of the numbers here.

I know you're well aware of what happened at 830, but the unemployment rate actually edged down to 4.2 percent.

That was its first decline in five months.

That leaves the three-month average at the lowest since mid-2020.

So jobs growth, and it is for the administration, two months away from the election.

I would say that this is another job report that indicates that we are continuing to see stable growth.

The unemployment rate ticked down slightly.

As you've already mentioned, labor force participation remains steady.

You know, this is a continued sort of transition, you know, to an economy in which we're continuing to see people come into labor market and find jobs.

And, you know, it's a transition to more stability.

And I know that you're not going to opine on what the Fed should do from here, but of course the concern is out there that we could see this weakening turn into a real deterioration if we don't see the Fed lower interest rates from here.

The current policy rate, do you think that that's out of step with the economic reality in the labor market?

We don't comment on what the Fed will do, but again, I think overall this is another month of many months in which I've come here and we've talked about how we continue to see job growth, right?

We're continuing to see growth in various industries.

We see construction, health care, leisure and hospitality, right?

These are all signs of an economy reaching a normal, steady, stable state.

And we, you know, want to continue to create the investments that are leading to this kind of job creation.

And the president will be traveling to Michigan later today to announce an executive order that is ensuring that we're not just counting the number of jobs, we're also making sure that these jobs are good jobs, where families can get ahead, where people can make a steady income, where they can retire with dignity.

And so these are all part of the economy that the president promised when he came to office and the economy that these numbers reflect.

Well, building on that, Julie, let's take a look at the specifics at the sector level, because you take a look at the manufacturing industry.

The estimate had been for a reduction of 2,000 jobs.

And actually the last three of four reports, I believe that sector has shed jobs.

So what's the current view on why employment in manufacturing has been weakening?

So I would say cumulatively, again, the number of manufacturing jobs created since the Biden-Harris administration began is over 700,000 jobs.

This is also part of the promise that we will make things in America again, from semiconductors to electric vehicle batteries.

The idea is that American workers are the best in the making things.

The investments that are going into communities are also, you're using American-made steel by American union workers and raw materials mined by American union workers.

And so, you know, the job growth that we have seen, which again was not promised, most people predicted that it would not happen the way that it has, is not happening by accident.

It's happening because of real investments and a commitment to job growth.

So when you look at the overall trends, manufacturing has gone up since the president came to office.

Construction had significant growth over this last month, and that is also no accident.

And I also want to get your perspective, of course, on some snafus, if you want to call them that, that have happened at the Bureau of Labor Statistics when it comes to data releases, because there have been a lot of questions about fair access and distribution of economic data falling.

Of course, the February super users incident, we had the early release of inflation data in May.

And then last month, there was that delay to the payroll revisions figures last month.

What steps is the BLS explicitly taking to address those missteps?

We obviously believe in transparent and fair data.

That is why we release the data each month the way that we do.

And so the BLS has attacked those issues head on to ensure that they do not happen again.

The fact that some of the information came out not in the way that we exactly would have liked in terms of their timing of release certainly, though, doesn't take away from the fact that this data remains the gold standard for how we judge the health of our economy, how we look at job growth, the employment rate and changes to industries when it comes to the labor market.

Well, Secretary, I'd love to get a little bit more detail on what that looks like that head on addressing.

I mean, are you considering going back to lockups?

Are you potentially firing people here or hiring more?

I mean, we've definitely put in place, you know, to the extent that some of them were technical issues, right, addressing those issues.

Again, we are absolutely committed to timely and uniform release of data.

You know, each of these incidents were really, you know, different, but we are taking a systematic look at how to make sure that they don't happen in the future.

And while I still have you, I asked about hiring specifically because I spoke to former Fed economist Claudia Somme the day after that payroll revisions delay, and she made the point that the BLS is underfunded.

And of course, our Department of Labor has done something similar.

I mean, you know, certainly nobody wants to see all parts of the Department of Labor adequately funded for the important work that we do that I, but I'll also say to that question about the Somme rule and what it means.

You know, a lot of that is about looking at historical data to judge what is happening now.

And I think what we've seen is that what's happened before isn't necessarily a good gauge for what is going on here today.

The post pandemic economic recovery, the historically low levels of unemployment for such a long period of time and the investments that are being made that have really shaken up the job market in positive ways.

And so overall, the many indicators are continuing to show that we are that the economy is growing and that the economy is strong.

And, you know, either way, obviously, it's important for us to keep on reporting the facts as they come out.

Secretary, really appreciate you taking the time on what I know is a busy morning.

 Our big thanks, of course, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Suh.