Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh on Friday reacted to the month of November’s jobs report showing the economy added only 210,00 jobs, and the unemployment rate sank to 4.2%.
Economists had forecast 545,000 jobs added and an unemployment rate of 4.5%.
Walsh told Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Company” that he wasn’t disappointed in the weaker than expected numbers because he was “looking at the whole picture.”
“I mean, it doesn’t necessarily disappoint me because I’m looking at the whole picture here,” Walsh outlined. “And you think about since President Biden has taken office, nearly 6 million jobs have been added, our unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, 2% lower than when he took office. So, you know, we still have a ways to go when we think about getting people back to work, but our recovery is happening, and it’s happening in a strong manner. You talk to CEOs. You talk to people around the country. They feel good. Obviously, there’s jobs that we have to really focus on and create better opportunities.”
“I was out in California this week, earlier, and I was at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach and looking at the supply chain issues and really seeing, you know, what, if the breakdowns are there, and one of the things we have to do is really train and prepare more truck drivers,” he continued. “I mean, one of the issues is trucking, and that’s a big issue in our country, so we have to do some work there.”
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