During an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su reacted to the July jobs report by stating that the July jobs number is “still over 100,000 jobs. It’s still broad-based.” And “generally, this is an indicator of continued strength in the economy.”
Host Katie Greifeld asked, “You actually spoke to us back in June and said that we were looking at the definition of a soft landing. As you parse through these numbers, would you still say that today?”
Su answered, “[L]ook at the three-month average, the three-month average in growth is still 170,000 jobs. Remember, we spent a year talking about how the numbers were too high and too hot and we had always planned for a transition to a more, sustainable, steady level of growth. This number did come in below expectations, it’s still over 100,000 jobs. It’s still broad-based. We saw growth in multiple industries. We saw it in construction, we saw it in health care, we saw it in leisure and hospitality. There was a dramatic drop in one industry, information. But, generally, this is an indicator of continued strength in the economy. And when you look at other things, including labor force participation, which is at an all-time high for prime-age workers — and we continue — know that there’s continued work left to do to make sure that we maintain a strong economy. But we’re still at a three-month average of above the number that President Biden said a year ago we need to be to have a sustainable, strong labor market in a strong economy.”
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