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Acting Secretary Sonderling Tells Newsmax Jobs Reports Keep Doubling Expectations, All in the Private Sector

September 14, 2026 · USDepartmentofLabor · 0:08:07

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What happened

Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling told Newsmax that economists surveyed expected about 85,000 jobs in the latest report and the figure came in at 172,000, while the prior month was expected at about 60,000, came in at 115,000 and was revised up to 200,000, according to the interview. He said more than 900,000 new jobs have been created in the private sector under this administration, and that all net job gains are in the private sector, as stated in his remarks.

Sonderling said President Trump promised to right-size the federal government, and he said the federal workforce is now at its lowest level since 1966 while offering the same services, according to the interview. He put the savings from federal job reductions at almost $47 billion — which he compared to the size of the Marine Corps budget — and said jobs are being created in construction and manufacturing where investment is landing, citing Toyota’s additional $2 billion investment in Texas, as stated in his remarks.

On pocketbook questions, Sonderling pointed to the working-family tax cuts, including no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, and to the Labor Department’s skills agenda, according to the interview. He said the department is promoting registered apprenticeships, is past 400,000 active apprenticeships toward a goal of 1 million, and that the average graduating apprentice earns $86,000 — $20,000 more than a traditional four-year degree path, without the debt, as stated in his remarks. He also said the Bureau of Labor Statistics is working to make jobs data collection more transparent and modern, and that removing illegal labor raises wages for American workers, according to the interview.

Why it matters

The interview is the Labor Department’s fullest televised defense of the jobs numbers — beating expectations, private-sector composition and the apprenticeship pipeline are the three claims the department is asking to be judged on.

Scoreboard watch

Sonderling cited specific reported figures — 172,000 jobs against roughly 85,000 expected, and the prior month revised to 200,000 — which can be checked against the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases for those months.

Sources: USDepartmentofLabor, “Secretary Sonderling talks about the May jobs report (Newsmax)”, 2026-09-14 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-09-14). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.