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Acting Secretary Sonderling on Fox: August Jobs Report Triples Expectations at 162,000

September 6, 2026 · USDepartmentofLabor · 0:08:50

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, in what the program billed as his first interview since the report, told Fox that the economy added 162,000 jobs in August while economists expected roughly 50,000 to 55,000, according to the interview (transcript rendered from Arabic auto-captions). The program reported unemployment held at 4.1 percent and wages rose 3.1 percent, as stated in the broadcast.

Sonderling said the report pushed the second Trump term past one million new private-sector jobs, and he said the federal workforce is now at its lowest level since 1966, with the program noting 350,000 federal jobs eliminated, according to the interview. He said 700,000 people joined the labor force in the past month and pointed to 100,000 new factory-construction jobs and 58,000 new manufacturing jobs so far in the term, as stated in his remarks.

Asked about ranchers concerned over foreign beef imports and temporarily lifted tariffs, Sonderling said he stood with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, the President and ranchers in the Oval Office for the announcement the day before, according to the interview. He said the executive actions let small, medium and large ranchers sell directly to consumers rather than through the four big packers, require country-of-origin labeling on foreign beef, and address Mexican gray wolves, and he said 7 million head of cattle were lost under the Biden administration, as stated in his remarks.

On artificial intelligence, Sonderling rejected calls to halt AI development, saying data-center construction is creating trades jobs — welders, pipefitters and technicians are the top needs he hears from technology companies — and that the department is working with community colleges and trade schools so American workers build and run the facilities and the tools, according to the interview.

Why it matters

The Labor Day-weekend interview is the administration’s headline jobs claim for August — a tripled expectation, a one-million private-sector milestone, and a pitch that AI buildout means trades work rather than job losses.

Scoreboard watch

The August figures Sonderling cited — 162,000 jobs added, 4.1 percent unemployment and 3.1 percent wage growth — can be checked directly against the Bureau of Labor Statistics release for August.

Sources: USDepartmentofLabor, “Labor day jobs report with Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling”, 2026-09-06 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-09-06). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.