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Sonderling Discusses May Jobs Report and AI Workforce Policy on NewsNation

September 14, 2026 · USDepartmentofLabor · 0:09:57

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What happened

Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling joined NewsNation to discuss the May jobs report, in a segment the Department of Labor dates to June 6, 2026. The program reported that the economy added 172,000 jobs in May, roughly double forecasts, with unemployment steady at 4.3 percent, as stated in the broadcast. Sonderling said recent months had beaten expectations — about 85,000 forecast for May against 172,000 actual, with April revised up to about triple expectations — as he stated the figures.

Sonderling said President Trump had created 900,000 private-sector jobs so far in the term, as he stated the figure in the segment’s rendering, and that the federal sector stood at its lowest job number since 1966, as he stated it. He cited year-over-year wage growth of 3.4 percent, no tax on tips and no tax on overtime under the working families tax cut, and a Toyota investment of $2 billion in Texas, as he stated them, in response to questions about when workers would feel gains in their wallets.

On artificial intelligence, the program cited a report of 97,000 announced job cuts in May, with AI given as the leading reason and 40 percent of cuts attributed to AI, up from 7 percent in January, as stated in the broadcast. Sonderling said the Labor Department’s mission is AI literacy and skills — working with the Education Department, state workforce agencies, and employers — and that the department expects AI to augment jobs more than displace them, with tasks changing rather than jobs disappearing, as he stated it. He also described two department roles under the president’s AI executive order: training workers to build and operate data centers, and building AI-literacy curriculum, noting that China teaches AI literacy in second grade, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The segment records the administration’s stated labor position on both fronts Sonderling addressed: private-sector job growth replacing federal jobs, and an augmentation-not-displacement account of AI that assigns the Labor Department the skills response.

Scoreboard watch

The broadcast’s stated figures — 172,000 May jobs, 4.3 percent unemployment, and AI cited in 40 percent of announced May job cuts — are checkable against the Bureau of Labor Statistics report and the Challenger report the segment cited.

Sources: USDepartmentofLabor, “Secretary Sonderling discusses May jobs report on NewsNation”, 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.