Script:

Records have been mentioning as today's June jobs report coming out slightly better than expected. While both April and May got a big revision higher. Joining us first on CNBC to give us the administrations, take on this morning’s employment report, Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao. Good morning, Ms. Chao.(Good morning.)

Walt Street here is a little bit divided on what the Fed’s next move will be and of course, that all relates to outlook on the economy, what does today’s report tell us about the economy?

Well, I think today's jobs report is quite solid, basically, unemployment rate is 4.5 percent. And it has held steady there for three months; we've had over half a million net new jobs created just in the last quarter. In fact, our economy has produced well over 8.2 million net new jobs since August of 2003. The initial claims file has been about 318,000 which again is below 330, which is a very comfortable number.So going forward, I think the labor market is quite firm and it's one of the strong spots in our economy. There are several other indicators, also leading indicators, which bode very well for expansion of the mark of the economy as we go forward in next quarter. And obviously, we continue to see, the two ISM surveys for both manufacturing and services, and that continues to increase. We see also nonresidential construction, which has increased, er ,15 percent, leading to tremendous pressures on overall rental rates. And then also...

Secretary, Let me interrupt this, we, you have limited time. The skepticism I see most often and hear from people is, oh yeah, we are creating jobs, but there, you know, it’s the burger flipper argument.

No, that’s absolutely not true. You know, of the 8.2 million net new jobs created since August of 2003, the majority of those jobs are being created required higher skills, more education. So by definition, that means that they are higher-paid jobs. In fact that, our economy is suffering a skills gap at this point. We have employers looking for skilled workers, and we have workers looking for jobs but lacking the requisite skills. So our greatest challenge for our information-based, knowledge-based economy is to find enough skilled workers. And that’s what we’re so devoted to addressing in the, at the Labor Department, is to close the skills gap by increasing our emphasis on job training. That’s very important.

Sure, of course. Madam Secretary, I have to ask you, looking to the numbers or looking at temporary help, that fell for a fifth 3 months and that's often viewed as a precursor of the future job growth , and what point dose this become a concern for you?

I don’t think that’s uh, of concern at all right now, I mean, if you look at the wage growth, the wage growth has been increasing at a moderate pace, enough so that it increases obviously returns to workers and we pay them more, but not so much that it stokes the inflation fears. So I think all the leading economic indicators this morning um, bode quite well for a continuous expansion of economy in the next quarter.

OK, Madam Secretary, thank you very much for your time. (Thank you) Elaine Chao, Labor Secretary, joining us here.

Notes:

Elaine Chao: currently serves as the 24th United States Secretary of Labor in the Cabinet of President of the United States George W. Bush. She is the first Asian American woman and first Chinese American to be appointed to a President's Cabinet in American history.