Labor Sec. Marty Walsh - The Future of Work in America

a good job right now with the jobs. You know. Obviously, COVID was one of the worst periods that the world has seen. You know, millions of people lost their jobs. The economy was in tattas. Now things are coming up, but it's an interesting time. The administration wants to get people working, and more importantly, the administration wants to get people working in jobs that actually allow them to earn a living, which is key because I think many people

have jobs. Not everybody can earn a living from the jobs that they have. It's a true statement, you know. And so at the same time you have the FED who's trying to shrink how much money people can earn. It's a really good time to be in the job market right now because you can earn a lot of money. But it seems like in trying to control interest rates there are conflicting interests. How do you how do you

deal with this? Yeah, well, the the FED is their own plan and they're working to bring down inflationary pressures that everyone in this audience and on the country of feeling, and President Biden rolled out a plan as well to to to deal with inflation. One is gas and we've seen for nine straight weeks in a row gas prices come down. I'm I'm of the camp that you know, a good paying job is important for America. It's good

for people. Uh. And I know that there's some fete is said at some point, you know, having a little bit unemployment might be good. I actually want to do everything I can to get more people working. We've had two amazing months in a row of job gain United States. I want to continue to see that trend that wants people to move from from jobs to paying mediocre into better paying jobs. I want to see people to use

their power with their companies to earn better wages. You know, at the end of the day, it's it's about keeping people working and that that moves our economy, more money in the economy, and I think the President wants they see these jobs being still being created. Is America's focus on protecting the jobs or protecting the people who are meant to be in those jobs. And the reason I asked that is because I've noticed that different countries have

different approaches, you know, when it comes to this. For instance, um in Sweden and in some Scandinavian country they're really proud of saying, look, we don't actually care about the jobs themselves. We care about the people and we just want to make sure that people can earn a living wage and will move them around. In America, it feels like a lot of the conflict comes from the fact that people are trying to protect the jobs. I'm a

coal minor, you know what I mean. I'm a railway worker, I'm a policeman, I'm a and and now the job is almost entrenched, when in fact the person is the is the thing you're trying to protect. How do you find that balance a you're trying to protect the job or the person. It's very different. I mean in Europe, a lot of European countries, when the pandemic began, people were sent home, they were paid a salary from their employer, and they didn't lose their work. Here in the United

States of America, ten million people got laid off. People were sent home. That's why they had to put the extra help for people that want unemployment. I think in the United States we're trying to shift towards making sure that we're treating people failing and creating good opportunities for those folks that they're not concerned about that particular job that if they lose that job, their life is over. And I think that we have to do a better

job of scaling people up and training people up. We're looking at the apprentice model quite honestly that Switzerland has and and Denmark has, all of these countries have. You know, they're more into apprenticeships and we are. We're more into job training and then you get thrown into the job and you better do it. If you don't do it, you don't work there. You know, having these apprenticeships and changing that mindset. So we're catching young people earlier. Two

kids that don't go to college. When they graduate high school and don't go to college, they might get a job at a fast food restaurant and some place like that. No, we need to get those folks, those young people, into apprenticeships to get into good paying jobs moving forward. Also, you know, in America, we tend to be get o a two weeks vacation, and we we work fifty two fifty weeks a year, we get the two weeks vacation.

If you go to another country in the world, European country, they got five six, seven weeks holiday and they go out and they enjoy themselves and the company is a still successful and productive. So I think that I think that hopefully some of these companies that are making big money realizing that, you know, you need to spend some of that on your employees, because if you have good employees and strong employees and happy employees, it will benefit

the company overall. It's as good talking to you who I let to go there? Before I let go, I would love to know your opinion on this. Gen Z has been leading the charge in re establishing what work should be and how people should think about it in their lives, you know, And one of the one of the terms that's become quite buzzy now is quiet quitting. People say I only need to work as much as

I need to work to get my salary. For too long, people in America have gone like, I work over to I'm the last one in the office, I don't sleep. My family hates me. People are proud of that. And now gen Z is saying, no, actually, I will work for what I am paid for and then I will go and I will live my life. Many companies are saying this is the worst thing that could happen. Where do you stand on this? As the secretary of Let me just say, the first time I as asked the

question about about quiet quitting, I really had. I thought it was people like quitting and leaving. So I gave, I gave an answer and it was not I look like a complete moron and it but and then I looked at what it was after the fact, Um, you know again, that goes back to I think it goes back to employers understanding about how they need to know their workforce and need to have conversations with their workforce and need to make sure that it workforce is understands

what the mission is and also is treated failing. And I think that that that has to happen when when I became the mayor Boston. You know, the biggest group of folks that I brought in was millennials, and millennials quite honestly, in the beginning, for we jump from job to job, the job here for ten minutes to go to new job after that, and it took me some time to sit down and talk about what what is it exactly that we can do here in the city of Boston as a as a city to keep you

working in the workforce. And I think having those conversations with your employees is so important for a corporation or even for government somebody like me, myself or other elected officials, we need to have those conversations because the quiet quitting piece. Um. You know, you're expecting when you hire somebody to work hard and do the right thing. But if they're not and there's a reason for it, let's let's get to the heart of what. What the what the what the

reason is right? Thank you so much for Johnny, Thank you. What's the Daily Show weeknights at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast