Labor Sec’y Walsh on Jobs Number Underperformance: Forecasters Have Been Wrong, ‘I Look at the Positive Side’ – Still Work to Do

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Stephanie Ruhle Reports,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh reacted to the August jobs report underperforming forecasts by stating that forecasters have been wrong for several months, and that while there is work to be done and the Delta variant hurt economic growth, “I look at the positive side of” the jobs numbers.

Walsh said, “Well, first and foremost, the forecasters have been wrong for the last several months. Last month, we were — I think the forecast was 600,000 jobs. We had over a million now with the adjustment up. But we have work to do –.”

Host Stephanie Ruhle then cut in to respond, “Okay, then forget the forecast. It’s a bad number.”

Walsh responded, “Yeah, but when you look at the number, I look at the positive side of the number. 235,000 jobs, most of those were in the private sector. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2%. Over the last three months, we’ve averaged over 750,000 jobs. But clearly, we have more work to do. Part of this, when I look at these numbers, and I take a deep look at these numbers, I look at the number in hospitality. In the last three months, those numbers were the highest. This month, we [pretty much had] zero — almost zero gain there. And you correlate that with the Delta variant, the increase in the Delta variant, particularly in the month of August, and you can see some correlation there.”

He further stated, “We’re moving in the right direction. We have a ways to go. And we’re not going to recover in one month or two months or three months. This is going to be a longer-term recovery, as far as getting people back into the workplace.”

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