Fox’s Laura Ingraham Asks Scott Bessent, ‘What’s the Reason Job Losses Seem to Be Going Up?’

During a Friday night interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Fox’s Laura Ingraham presented data showing that unemployment rates reached a four-year high in November, asking, “What’s the reason job losses seem to be going up?”

The reporting Ingraham cited was published this week by The Wall Street Journal and relied upon a delayed government report — released Tuesday — which found that the country’s unemployment rate reached 4.6% last month, marking the highest measurement in more than four years.

Right after Bessent touted the work of President Donald Trump and his administration to bring down inflation to “2.2%,” Ingraham responded, “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.”

“So, the argument [the Journal is] making,” continued Ingraham, “is that unemployment numbers — they’re not due to inflation here. So, what’s happening? What’s the reason job losses seem to be going up?”

“Well, I think a big part of it is that the government — the RIFs that were done kicked in in October,” said Bessent, before Ingraham interrupted to clarify that RIF means “reduction in workforce,” before jokingly calling him a “government weenie.”

Here, Bessent is referring to the firings of government workers by Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought amid this fall’s government shutdown — the longest in U.S. history. According to reporting by The New York Times, “about 17,000 workers have been laid off” and “7,000 probationary employees were fired” in total this year.

“The government reduction kicked in,” continued Bessent. “I can tell you that over the short, medium, and long-term, the economy will be much better off with more private sector jobs, more government — I mean, fewer government jobs. And I expect that next year, we’re gonna see the private sector come out the other side.”

“So, AI boom,” Ingraham kept on questioning, “is that definitely gonna lead to more American jobs? Not the H-1Bs, not the foreign workers, but American workers?”

“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,” said Bessent, though it’s not clear what exact “growth” he’s referring to.

Watch the clip above via Fox.