Labor secretary: ‘We do have places to grow’ in the U.S. workforce

U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss May jobs report data, consumer confidence, the state of the economy, and the outlook for growth.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Also, we got to dive back into the May jobs report. It came in better than expected despite economic concerns amid high inflation. Joining us now for more on the state of the labor market, we've got US Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman joining for the conversation as well. Labor Secretary, thanks for taking the time here this morning. The reading better than expected and unemployment sitting at about 3.6%. You know, where are you going to look for sequential improvements to continue to be made in the employment situation?

MARTY WALSH: Well, I certainly think that when you look at this jobs report, it's a good report. We have to look at areas like leisure, hospitality that still has room to grow. We saw a little bit of a decline in retail this last month. So, obviously, we're going to watch that. We see areas, like, in medical and education, that there's an ability for room to grow as well. So we do have places to grow in this report, in the job market. But overall, it's a very steady and stable and strong growth that we're seeing right now.

BRIAN SOZZI: You're right, Mr. Secretary. It is-- it's steady growth. And you did see it come in better than Wall Street economists' estimates. So my question to you is, do you think we are running the risk, not just here in media land and corporate America, of talking the economy into a recession?

MARTY WALSH: Well, I mean, I don't want to create any news, but I hope we don't talk into a recession. I feel like when I go around the country, I talk to businesses. And, you know, I still hear some of the challenges for businesses. They're looking to hire people, and they can't find people out there. But their businesses are still continue to move forward. I just think we have to take this thing a step at a time here. I don't think we can-- we shouldn't be hoping or predicting we're going to have a recession moving forward.

I think that we're going through very uncertain economic times right now in our country, I think that due to the pandemic, due to the war in Ukraine, due to a lot of other circumstances that are not within our control, in some cases. And I think the president has put out forth a plan to really deal with the inflation issues and made a very big statement the other day when he said the Federal Reserve is an independent body to do their own thing. So I think that says a lot right there.

RICK NEWMAN: Secretary Walsh, Rick Newman here. Job market definitely solid, but consumer confidence is lousy by some metrics, even at recessionary levels. Should the Biden administration do something about that? Can you do something about that? Or should you just let consumers feel they way they want to feel?

MARTY WALSH: No, I think the president did some pieces in the paper last week. And he talks about-- he'll be talking about the economy later today. I think we just need to continue to do our job here. I think people are concerned about the gas prices. People are concerned about food prices. I think that people are concerned about what they're paying. I mean, I think that even though somebody might be making more money than they did this time three years ago or two years ago, and they might be in a better job than they were, they still feel the pressures of the inflation.

And I think that that's something we shouldn't run away from. We should embrace it and do everything we can to continue to fight through that. And when you think of the American economy, we're coming back stronger than most economies in the world. But we still have these challenges. And again, it's not unique to the United States. It's happening globally.

BRAD SMITH: Secretary Walsh, we're increasingly hearing about hiring freezes and even cuts, in some instances, in some of the strongest areas, or at least, most competitive areas of the employment market, and technology in that sector. During the month of April as well, looking back at some other backward-looking data, there was almost two jobs open for every unemployed person. If hiring freezes persist, creating kind of this vacuum effect of those open positions, what economic impact would you be anticipating?

MARTY WALSH: Well, I don't know how long the hiring freeze is going to be and if it's going to be across every industry. I think that it also goes back to us in the Department of Labor and states and cities around the country, workforce development, job training, and apprenticeships. I think that we really have to start thinking about the economy when it comes to workers in a different way. I think we have to be really focused and intentional on making investments and workforce development programs and apprenticeship programs.

I was in Germany two weeks ago, and I had a chance to go to Volkswagen. And I did a tour of the facility, and I saw young people there doing an apprenticeship program, where they weren't going to go into college. They were going to go into a career. And we really have to start thinking, as an American economy, about, how do we continue to prepare people for the future? I know this doesn't answer the question you just asked me. But it also-- it's about getting the next level of workers in America skilled up to do other jobs.

RICK NEWMAN: Inflation right now, you mentioned it. It's bumming out consumers. It's 8.3%. Are you seeing any signs that inflation might be coming down? Can we get that below 8%, maybe below 7% by the end of the summer?

MARTY WALSH: Well, I think we saw 1/10 of a drop last week, I think it was. And hopefully, we can see those numbers coming down. The president released some oil reserves. Hopefully, we'll see some gas prices coming down. You know, again, this is a very challenging time right now with inflation. We did have issues on supply chain and getting goods into the country. We're seeing those alleviated a bit, with more goods coming into the country.

The one thing we did see, though, this month is about a 61,000 drop in retail. So I don't know if that's cooling down a bit in the retail sales, but we're going to be watching all these different signs as we move forward in the next month.

BRIAN SOZZI: Mr. Secretary, you mentioned that you visited Volkswagen. You saw workers being trained. You saw-- and they are a company that continues to hire. But here, in the US, we're getting word now the Tesla company you've gotten to know a little bit, and Elon Musk potentially looking to lay off 10% of its workforce. Are you surprised by an announcement like that?

MARTY WALSH: You know, certainly, Elon Musk is a very smart person, and he's looking at where he is in the economy and where his company is. I'm hopeful that that won't have to happen. I'm hopeful that as we continue to move forward here, we'll continue to see our economy get stronger. I have not spoken to-- I'd love to-- I haven't had a conversation with Mr. Musk since I met with him about two months ago, but would love to, at some point, follow back up with him, just think about what more we can do as a government. Quite honestly, this is not just a government response. This is a business response as well in where we're headed with the economy.

BRAD SMITH: Secretary Walsh, as you look across some of the investments that businesses are making, even in automating certain kind of monotonous jobs within their workforce and within their operations, how do you engage with those businesses? What conversations are you having with them to also make sure that they are still prioritizing that human head count at the end of the day, too, so that we are seeing more jobs open up, not just for the robots and the robot beat covers like us here on Yahoo Finance, but also some of the workforce that is looking to revitalize and reskill in order to still have those positions available to them?

MARTY WALSH: Yeah, we're certainly very open to having conversations with any companies that's looking to do more technology. As I mentioned, when I was in Germany, I saw tons of computerized manufacturing going on in the Volkswagen facility. And they still employed 60,000 people in the town of Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen is headquartered. So even when automation comes, we still need people. And it's about how do we train these people up. I was with the GM facility with the president about six months ago. We saw automation there, but we also saw lots of folks working there as well. So there's a balance.

And as the department, as the Secretary of Labor, certainly, we're going to work with companies as we move forward here. You know, I'm not worried about the technology today getting rid of people, but certainly, it's something that we have to be cognizant of and making sure that we're skilling people up to do the jobs in these factories that are still going to be needed.

RICK NEWMAN: Secretary Walsh, are you rooting for any particular team in the NBA Finals?

MARTY WALSH: Oh, yeah, they won last night, man. Baby, they looked good. Jayson Tatum, Brown, Smart, Williams, Horford, oh, my God, what a great win. That was a-- you know. That was a good win last night. It was an important win last night for us. Golden State, I believe, they were undefeated at home in the playoffs so far. So we'll see what happens in game 2.