Ingraham Challenges Treasury Secretary: Why Are Job Losses Rising as Unemployment Hits 4.6%?

During a Friday night interview on Fox News, host Laura Ingraham pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after citing reporting that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November — the highest reading in more than four years. Ingraham asked directly, why job losses appear to be increasing even as inflation has cooled.

The interview referenced a Wall Street Journal story based on a delayed government release published Tuesday. That report put the unemployment rate at 4.6% for November.

After Bessent praised the administration’s efforts, saying inflation had fallen to about 2.2%, Ingraham pointed out an apparent divergence in the labor market: earnings growth had slowed and unemployment had ticked up.

“So, inflation’s down, but unemployment ticked up a bit, to a four-year high in November. Earnings growth slowed — still going up, but slowed a little bit.”

Ingraham summarized the Journal’s contention that the rise in unemployment was not being driven by inflation and asked Bessent, “What’s happening? What’s the reason job losses seem to be going up?”

Bessent said a major contributor was recent government workforce reductions. He referred to RIFs (reductions in force) implemented in October and argued those moves pushed public-sector employment down.

“I think a big part of it is that the government — the RIFs that were done kicked in in October,” Bessent said. He added that, over the short, medium and long term, the economy would be stronger with more private-sector jobs and fewer government positions, and he expects private hiring to rebound next year.

The comments allude to dismissals tied to actions taken by the administration during this fall’s government shutdown. Reporting by The New York Times estimated roughly 17,000 government workers were laid off this year, including about 7,000 probationary employees.

Ingraham then asked whether an anticipated AI boom would generate jobs for American workers rather than rely on H-1B visas or other foreign labor. Bessent responded that job gains this year had gone to native-born Americans.

“In general, we have seen the growth of jobs this year has gone to native-born Americans. Not illegals, not others. One hundred percent of the job growth has gone to Americans,” Bessent said, though he did not specify which particular labor-market metric he was citing.

That last claim — that 100% of job growth went to native-born Americans — was presented without a clear statistical reference in the exchange. The interview clip is available via Fox. The segment and related reporting first appeared on Mediaite.