Let's continue the discussion now because joining us is Acting Labor Secretary, Julie Sue joining from Washington.
Secretary.
Great to speak with you again today. I want to talk about the response rate. We were just having that conversation with Mike McKee. So just how low was the response rate, of course, in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and what would you.
Expect it to pick back up?
Yeah, So the overall picture of this economy remains one strong, steady, stable growth. We have seen positive job growth every single month under this administration. And as you noted, there were a couple of big factors that make this last.
Month and anomaly.
There were the devastating hurricanes, which meant that there were jobs that people, you know, businesses that were closed.
You know, we saw this because the.
Federal government was on the ground working with state and local officials to do everything from the search and rescue to reopening roads, to making sure people had access to water and to power, and so those same businesses that might have ramped up in the last month on hiring, we're not doing so. At the same time, the other big indicators are still really stable. Unemployment rate remains at
four point one percent. We've said this again and again that most predictors were that that number could not go down to that for many, many years after the pandemic, and it's been steadily at near or below four percent for for a very long time. GDP growth is up to wages continued to be up. Wages have outpaced inflation for seventeen months straight.
And so there are a couple factors.
That you know that you know certainly you know we expected that they would affect the numbers for last month's report.
Well, Secretary, if we look at.
What wasn't as impacted by some of these effects that we're talking about on the weather, I mean, we still had big downward revisions to this September and August payrolls report. Obviously, this is going to be a bit of a noisy report. And looking ahead, I mean you'd take a look to October or what we're going to get the next time around. How big would we expect those revisions to be.
Yeah, again, you know, there were anomalous situations that affected this report. But even with those revisions in the prior couple months, the three month average and we often look at averages because we don't want to make too much of any one month.
As you said, some of them can be noisy.
The three month average for the prior three months is still a one hundred and forty eight thousand jobs grown.
In the economy.
And again, you know, if you look at overall indicators, I mean, people have been predicting a downturn for a long time this economy, and it just has not. That's not what's happened. And that doesn't happen by accident. You know, it happens because of steady leadership. And again, the vestments that we've made in America in manufacturing and construction and clean energy are having an.
Effect, and that is one.
Of the key reasons for the strength of the economy that we've had. Those investments will continue and they are, you know, that's part of the impact that we've seen over the last really three and a half years.
The administration has guided that this would be a noisy report already, and of course this morning was indeed quite noisy. I want to go to the unemployment rate because one reason it did hold steady was the decrease in the labor force participation. If we can hone in there, how would you characterize the impact of the hurricanes in participation, right.
I mean, it's, as you noted earlier, we don't have granular data about that, but I think it's you know, it's a rational conclusion that the impacts of the hurricanes were devastating. I mean, they were devastating to human life. They were devastating to those communities in the southeast, but they also are showing up in the jobs report said that the overall labor force participation rate also remains, you know, steady,
it's a it's at historic highs. So when we talk about the economy, we have to look at trends, and the trends overall on all major indicators, h you know, continue to signal an economy that's very strong.
And there is nobody who's.
You know, reassessing the overall healthy economy based on based on these numbers, which are really affected by by a couple of things that happened last month.
I'd also love for you to go into the impact of the strikes as well. Obviously the Boeing strike as well as others, have impacted that manufacturing number, but the Boeings latest union endorsed the latest offer. Do you expect there to be enough votes to approve the current deal and ultimately end the strike, and on what timeline.
Right.
So, I've said a lot of times collective bargaining works, and there is no better example of that than when workers at the bargaining table get a an unprecedented offer and where the demands that they've had, you know, they get a chance to sit down at the table and help to shape the future of their jobs and the future of their employer and the future of their industry. It is true that the tens of thousands of workers being on strike are also one reason for the jobs numbers that we see this month.
And you know, the workers will decide. You know, they have been demanding.
Makeup in wages and other working conditions for what's been over a decade of not having them, and so they now have an offer before them.
And it was a.
Privilege to help bring the parties together to help move those talks along. And they'll vote. They'll vote on Monday.
And of course, Labor Secretary, you've of course been involved in ending other strikes, You're involved in these negotiations as well. We're counting down to that vote. What is still at issue here, because of course we've had a lot of conversations about wages increases.
We know that there's been.
A lot of daylight between these two sides when it comes to the issues of pensions, for example, what is still left to be resolved right now?
I mean, you know, these issues of retirement, security of benefits, you know, making sure that workers can go to the doctor without breaking the bank. All of these things are fundamental to a good job, and in unions workers usually have those things. They're not something that every worker gets to enjoy. And so at the bargaining table all these
issues come up again. These parties have not bargained for over a decade, and now that they've been able to do that, the workers have been able to surface issues that have.
Been, you know, on their minds for a very long time.
And they now have an offer that addresses the issues that they brought to the table. And I really need to give credit to both parties for coming to the table, for doing the hard work.
These things are never easy. They often take all night.
I've been at the table all night, so you know, this is the process of collective bargaining. It doesn't always look pretty from the outside, but we have seen the results time and time again, from auto workers to actors, you know, all across the industry where workers are seeing really historic gains, and that is a part of the picture of the overall economy.
You know.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have said from day one, we can't build the economy that we want if we don't do right by working people. And the fact that wages continue to be up and wages exceed inflation are signs of that working families have more money.
In their pockets and that's a good thing
Our thanks to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Sue, we do have to leave it there.