Welcome back to Yahoo finance live from The labor department here in Washington DC I'm Jennifer sha Berger for more Insight on this morning's jobs report I Want to welcome into the program acting Labor secretary Julie Sue secretary Sue Always great to see you thanks so much For joining me thank you we got a bit of A weaker payroll number than expected Showing a continued cooling Trend but Still a rebound from that much weaker July jobs report to what do you Attribute rebound what is happening There what's the dynamic yeah look I Mean this is a continued sign of what we Talk about month after month which is we Have are seeing steady and stable job Growth this is part of a the transition From the Breakneck speed of job growth That we saw in the initial years of the Recovery again none of that happened by Accident many people predicted it would Not be possible a lot of people said we Would not get to a 4% unemployment rate For a very long time and we defied all Those expectations and so this is a Continued steady stable job growth 142,000 jobs while labor force Participation rate remained steady and The unemployment rate Still Remains the Lowest for the longest stretch it's been In decades uh and so this is a sign of An economy that is very very strong Continued stable job growth you say but
We are seeing a cooling Trend when we Look at the revisions today for instance June now only 118,000 jobs July only 89,000 created of course August 142,000 my question is how much more can We see the labor market continue to cool Without a recession so that our word has Been thrown around for some time and uh You know by contrast everybody said you Know will there be this soft Landing I Think what we've seen over the last year Uh and you know the last few months are No different is that coveted soft Landing it's a you know labor market That remains very strong that you know By all indications especially when you Combine it with our strong GDP growth The um you know uh the the the the Battle against inflation the um you know Labor force participation again women in The labor force broke the last record Which we set which was in May um it's it Overall right the the the the indicators Of the economy are of of strong robust Growth and not recession the preliminary Benchmark revisions that we got a couple Weeks ago show show that job growth uh From March in the prior 12 months was Actually lower by 800,000 do you expect further revisions Like that for the balance of this year You know revisions are part of what uh The BLS does it's it's it's not nothing Out of the ordinary about that uh it's
The reason why we can come out every Month and provide data and then you know Because of the reliable and transparent Way that BLS operates provide revisions Uh afterwards and so but it's possible We could see weaker job growth depending Given the trend we've seen right yeah we Can see revisions both up and down That's true in you know all Administrations and again it's a sign of The the you know the why the BLS data is Considered the gold standard uh is Because it's able to be released quickly And then um and then revised as more Data comes in you just said the BLS data Considered the goal standard and I do Want to ask you because there's a debate Right now about whether the BLS and the Census are under counting immigrant In fact Brookings just came out with a Study recently finding that us and Foreign born employment increased more Than published data show so do you think That the household and establishment Surveys are under Counting right I mean so the data colle This is the largest amount of data Collection about the state of our Economy the state of the labor market um You know the the unemployment rate that As as as exists and so uh you know Certainly we um we continue to data data Collection you know it is it it is it is An art not a science um it requires us
To uh you know reach out to households And sometimes they respond timely Sometimes they don't um you know Sometimes we can do it by phone Sometimes we have to knock on doors and So there's always you know the effort to Make sure that the data we get is as Comprehensive and as accurate as Possible and then we make revisions when More data comes in and we we we know we We it's for for for a very long time the BLS data has been considered reliable Because of all that work that goes into It switching gear secretary I want to Ask you about a couple of looming Strikes do you think that Boeing and its Factory workers will be able to come to An agreement by the deadline of September 12th and avoid a strike what Are you hearing from both sides now so The parties are at the table and they're Negotiating we've said from the very Beginning that this administration Supports collective bargaining we Believe that unions are good for this Country and the jobs data reflects that Right that we can build an economy in Which workers come first in which Workers do well and and and supporting Collective bargaining is a part of that And so uh you know we encourage them to Stay at the table um and the parties Always seem like they're far apart until They're not it's something that I've
Certainly seen firsthand uh and and so Um you know it's premature at this point To talk about an actual strike and along The same wavelength a contract for a Longshore worker on both the East and Golf Course coasts are set to expire uh At the end of this month uh but there is Push back from the union about Automation Union the union is concerned That technology is taking union workers Jobs what do you say to that Union and Other unions who are concerned about Ai And automation yeah I mean this is why The president has been all in on making Sure that in the development of Artificial intelligence that we um look Out for work workers that we make sure That AI does right by workers and this Automation question is not limited to The ports uh it was also an issue in the West coast ports and you know we know That we can build an economy build a World in which we use technology for the Things that it can do to make our lives Easier make our lives better right Eliminate maybe the most grueling and Repetitive tasks but make sure that we Also protect workers and good jobs and U And and that's that's a big priority uh For this Administration and we know that When work have a voice in determining How technology will be used how it will Be implemented um that that's good for Working people too we see that across
Many Industries uh and so that's another Reason why unions and collective Bargaining are positive forces
