The United States does not need to produce as many jobs because of the Trump administration's mass deportation strategy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday. After a recent report showed signs that the U.S. job market may be weakening, Bessent argued that fewer jobs are needed because deportations and lower levels of immigration have reduced the size of the workforce. "I think the jobs numbers are quite noisy," Bessent told CNBC.
"The other thing that's important, too, is the jobs that we're seeing are going to Americans. After the deportations that we've seen during President Donald Trump's administration, and the closing of the border, this unfettered migration, we don't need to produce as many jobs." His remarks shifted the focus from the administration's frequent campaign argument that deportations would create opportunities for American workers to a broader argument that a smaller labor force requires fewer new jobs. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email Thursday afternoon.
Bessent's comments come after a difficult stretch for the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this month that the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July, while payroll estimates for May and June were revised downward by a combined 103,000 jobs, suggesting hiring was weaker than previously believed. The unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, while the labor force participation rate fell to 61.4 percent, continuing a decline seen earlier this year.
Administration officials have argued that tougher immigration enforcement is helping ensure that available jobs go to American workers. But many economists view a shrinking labor force as a long-term challenge for economic growth because having fewer workers generally means that businesses can produce fewer goods and services. The argument has surfaced repeatedly in government and private-sector analyses.
A 2026 report from the Social Security Trustees projected that labor-force growth will remain historically weak in the coming decades, largely because of an aging population and slower growth in the working-age population. Trump administration agencies have acknowledged the importance of immigrant workers in certain sectors. In a recent federal rulemaking, the Department of Homeland Security stated that immigrants fill critical gaps across industries including agriculture, healthcare, construction and transportation, and noted that immigrants are a net positive for the U.S. economy overall.
Newsweek previously reported that labor-market researchers and immigration analysts warned that mass deportations could reduce the number of available workers at a time when employers continue to report hiring challenges. Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy told Newsweek before the 2024 election that without immigrants and their children, the U.S. would have seen little labor-force growth in recent years. Anderson on Thursday said that the administration's policies had "failed to help" American workers.
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