President Donald Trump’s top security adviser Kevin Hassett attempted to put a rosy spin on a Labor Department report which found the number of layoffs across the U.S. at their highest number in two years, along with continued uncertainty over the economy.
Hassett, who chairs the White House National Economic Council, appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday, where he suggested the figures in the report appeared grimmer than the reality due to “a problem with the way the surveys work,” as well as this fall’s record-breaking government shutdown.
“We still have to get, like, the government data that we lost because of the shutdown,” he said. “One of the things we’re seeing is that payroll surveys, where they call up firms and say, ‘Hey, how many people do you have working for you?’ that they’re showing much lower growth than household surveys where we ask people, ‘Do you have a job?’”
“And so it could be that what’s going on right now is that there’s a problem with the way the surveys work,” he continued. “I’ll be able to talk to you in a week or so when we finally get the data we need to assess that. But the bottom line is that GDP growth is 4% right now and accelerating into next year with all the capital spending we’re seeing, and there’s never really ever in my memory, going all the way back to World War II ... has there been growth that high without job creation.”
