LAVORGNA: "All Of The Job Gains Year To Date Have Been In Native-Born Employment”
Bottom Line on Jobs Gains from Friday’s WarRoom:
President Trump’s economic agenda is producing key gains in employment and capital investment, with strong wage growth, low layoffs, and major trade restructuring. While AI-driven capital expenditures are rising, concerns remain about the long-term impact on job creation. Still, Trump’s policies—especially around trade, tax, and expensing—are setting the foundation for continued growth, particularly for native-born workers and blue-collar sectors.
Full Report:
Joe Lavorgna, a former Treasury official, joined Steve Bannon on WarRoom to analyze the latest jobs report and the broader economic landscape under President Trump. The conversation opened with concern over the latest job data. The headline numbers weren’t shocking, but the revisions and job sector concentrations drew attention.
Lavorgna acknowledged the softer numbers, saying, "The numbers were, uh, relative to what they had been… there were down revisions.” But he emphasized positive fundamentals: "Layoffs are very low. We see that in jobless claims—initial claims are back down to the lowest reading in weeks.”
A major point of discussion was where job growth is actually occurring. Lavorgna stressed that native-born employment is leading the way. "All of the job gains year to date have been in native-born employment. They’re up about 2.5 million. Foreign-born employment, which people use as a proxy for illegal immigration, was actually down a million.” This has important implications for wage trends. "The wage trend will strengthen,” he added, attributing this to Trump’s stricter immigration enforcement and pro-worker policies.
They then pivoted to capital expenditures, or capex. Lavorgna highlighted substantial corporate investment: "We’ve got the capex comeback, and that matters-when capex is growing at a decade-plus high, that always precedes faster employment.”
Bannon, however, expressed skepticism about whether traditional employment gains would follow. He pointed out that much of the new investment is AI-related: "You’re seeing… the impact of artificial intelligence. My concern is the big capital expenditure may not lead to the actual employment growth that we anticipate.” He noted that investment in data centers and AI infrastructure may not result in meaningful hiring, especially in white-collar entry-level jobs.
Lavorgna responded by defending the structure of Trump’s economic package, especially the "one big, beautiful bill” that enables 100% expensing for businesses. "It actually gives 100% expensing to build those data centers, factories, and plants… You’ll see much faster wage gains because there’ll be real employment demand there,” particularly for skilled labor and blue-collar work.
They agreed that interest rates need to come down to unlock growth fully. Lavorgna emphasized, "If we get the lower rate, we’re going to be able to get housing costs down, significantly improve first-time affordability… everything kind of multiplies itself.”
They also touched on corporate profits. Bannon asked whether companies would favor efficiency and earnings over job creation: "Are you concerned they’re going to get great top-line growth and earnings growth, but that’s going to come at the expense of high-value-added, high-paying jobs?” Lavorgna dismissed that concern: "If you’re good and you add value, those are still very high-paying jobs.”
Finally, they looked to the future. Lavorgna expects new industries and financial products—fueled by innovation, deregulation, and Trump’s Genius Act—to create new demand and job categories. "We’re going to have high-paying jobs—certainly on the blue-collar side,” he concluded.
Watch this full segement for more context:
