With the nation’s unemployment rate relatively steady since President Donald Trump returned to office, acting U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling focused on private sector job growth during a local visit Thursday.
At Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, Sonderling called the growth “tremendous.” He credited Trump for following through on a promise “to right-size the federal government and increase the private sector.”
“The key metric we look at is all the net job gains are in the private sector,” Sonderling said.
What federal data show
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reviewed by WVIA News show the economy produced 903,000 new private sector jobs since Trump took office January 2025. The nation’s unemployment rate, 4% then, was 4.3% in May.
The federal data show about 1 million fewer Americans working in May than in January 2025 — 162.8 million versus 163.8 million. Despite that, the unemployment rate ticked up only 0.3 percentage points because the fewer people employed number was offset set by a smaller civilian labor force — 170.1 million in May versus 170.1 million before.
The civilian labor force equals the number of people with jobs combined with the number of people looking for jobs.
The federal government employed 347,000 fewer people in May than when Trump took office — 2,677,000 versus 3,024,000, according to the bureau.
Secretary predicts job growth
Sonderling attributed increases in manufacturing and construction jobs to the president’s policies. He said overall employment will increase as workers get “off the sideline” because of building and trade instruction programs of the kind LCCC offers.
“There's such a deficit of jobs that are needed right now, almost 700,000 that require high skill and are in the trades,” Sonderling said. “And what we see is that a lot of students that have taken the traditional four-year path to college don't have the skills they need for the jobs that are available, so there's a significant mismatch.”
New education aid available
He touted an expanded federal Pell grant program that takes effect July 1.
Under the program, eligible students can get education grants for eight to 15 weeks of training in what the U.S. Department Education calls “high-quality, short-term educational programs that prepare them for high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand jobs.”
“This new program will help more Americans rapidly enter the workforce with little-to-no student debt while simultaneously strengthening the nation’s talent pipeline,” the department said in a May 18 news release.
Sonderling said many job certification programs “don't require two years of knowledge.”
“And this is not just in the trades, this is also cybersecurity programs,” he said. “We think it's going to be a new creative way for students to be able to use financial aids to certificate programs ... to get them in the workforce quickly and ... close the gap on some of those jobs that we know are available.”
With classes ended for the year, LCCC building trade instructors explained electrician, plumbing and HVAC training programs to Sonderling and other onlookers.
“What can we do to continue to motivate students to pick this over other careers? And what is the best sales pitch to enter your program?” Sonderling asked HVAC instructor John Weaver.
“Well, I never like to talk about money, but that's what everybody wants to push on the younger generation,” Weaver replied.
“I would like to say that for anybody young that's thinking about this field, it has provided all of us a great opportunity to provide very well for our families, and you'll never be without a job," Weaver said. "You can go anywhere in this country and find a job in any of these fields, and AI (artificial intelligence) is not taking that away.”
