Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer denied that tariffs have anything to do with the weak jobs numbers Friday, laying blame on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to bend to President Donald Trump’s pressure to lower interest rates.
“Jerome Powell should be embarrassed by this report, because he has not done his job,” Chavez-DeRemer said on Fox Business.
Pressed if she’s even a little disappointed by the numbers, Chavez-DeRemer conceded slightly, but said the Trump administration is in a net positive with jobs numbers.
“Well 22,000 jobs underperformed just a bit, but it’s still in the positive, almost a half a million jobs have been created since the President took office,” she said.
“It’s going to take some time, but again, when everybody is working for the American people and the American worker, and somebody chooses not to, and they’re instrumental in those decisions that affect the market, that affect the wage growth, that affect all of those things, do your job,” Chavez-DeRemer added, referring to Powell.
Asked if tariffs have anything to do with the slowing job market, Chavez de Remer said, “Tariffs are working.”
“How do I know this? Because companies are reinvesting in the American workforce. We’re seeing the consumer confidence up. We’re seeing real wages up year over year, almost 4% real wages are up,” she said.
Chavez-DeRemer’s statistics are not correct. Over the past year, through July, real (inflation-adjusted) average hourly earnings were up 1.2%. Through August, average hourly wage growth, not adjusted for inflation, was up 3.7%, a slowing from the 3.9% rate in July.
“We’re doing everything we can for this workforce, and now this is one more thing that the Fed can do, and Jerome Powell hasn’t done his job, and the President, that’s why he’s been so vocal about this: We need those interest rates down,” Chavez-DeRemer said.