Trump labor secretary touts ‘native-born’ share of job gains

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer touted that native-born employment increased in the latest dismal jobs report, which showed the U.S. added only 73,000 jobs in July.

While calling for the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, Chavez-Deremer argued that businesses need to be able to borrow money at a lower rate so they can invest in their companies. She then pointed to the data about jobs for American-born workers.

“We’ve seen positive job growth. We have seen consumer confidence go up. We’ve seen unemployment hold steady,” Chavez-DeRemer said Friday in an interview with Fox Business. “While we could have seen better jobs numbers, right now we’re seeing American workers are being put first — native-born workers account for all of the job growth and that’s key.”

“We’re setting the table for a positive economy and the American worker is going to win in this occasion because the president has their back,” she told “Varney & Co” host Stuart Varney.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released on Friday suggested the economy and labor market are much weaker than previously thought.

The report though found that job growth among American-born individuals was 133,035,000, an increase from 131,037,000 for the same month in 2024. Among foreign-born individuals, employment declined to 30,764,000 in July from 31,001,000 a year ago.

President Trump’s response to the jobs report was furious. He fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her, without evidence, of politicizing previous job reports in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump’s decision, saying she agreed “our jobs numbers must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes,” without offering any evidence to support Trump’s claim.