Department of Labor News

Reports on Department of Labor policy, employment statistics, and workforce regulations. The Daily Signal provides news and conservative analysis on labor markets, union influence, workplace mandates, and the impact of federal labor policy on businesses and workers.
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    • News

    Labor Secretary Out, Replacement Named

    Lori Chavez-DeRemer has resigned as labor secretary, White House communications director Steven Cheung announced on X. “She will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” Cheung said on Monday. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • News

    US Weekly Jobless Claims Fall More Than Expected Amid Labor Market Stability

    REUTERS—The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, consistent with a stabilizing labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 206,000 for the week ended Feb. 14, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims…
    Lucia Mutikani
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    • News

    EXCLUSIVE: Senators Ask Education Department to Collaborate on Student Loan Fraud Probe

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In a letter shared with The Daily Signal, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, unveiled their plans to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse in federal education funding and the Biden-era student loan “bailout agenda.” The senators’ announcement follows their appointment by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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    • News

    Exclusive: How Labor Secretary Is Helping Linda McMahon Dismantle the Department of Education

    Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she expects to see success from the Labor Department taking on the responsibilities of the Education Department. The Department of Education and the Labor Department integrated the federal government’s education and workforce portfolio. The change positioned the Labor Department as the headquarters for all federal workforce programs and executed the…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • News

    EXCLUSIVE: Labor Secretary Reveals Whether Trump Can Axe H-1B Visas

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the law doesn’t allow the Trump administration to eliminate H-1B visas. When asked by The Daily Signal if eliminating the program—a proposal popular with the MAGA base—is a possibility, Chavez-DeRemer said “I don’t think that that’s really what’s in the law.” “The law is, H-1B visa…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • News

    EXCLUSIVE: How Labor Secretary Is Saving American Jobs From AI Replacement

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is dedicating every possible resource to ensuring American jobs aren’t lost to artificial intelligence, she told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview. “You’ll see the media talk about, the fearmongering—you’re gonna lose your job—but I can tell you this,” she said, “we are deploying everything we…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • News

    Trump Administration Has Found 62,000 Children, Some Victims of Sex Trafficking and Forced Labor, Tom Homan Reports

    The Trump administration has located 62,000 children who entered the U.S. unaccompanied under the previous administration, according to border czar Tom Homan.   “Some of these children were in sex trafficking—we found them. Some were in forced labor, some were being mistreated—I can’t even discuss some of the mistreatment we found out about,” Homan said Sunday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “President [Donald] Trump, again, proves why…
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    Records Reveal How Democrat AGs Collaborated on Anti-Trump Legal Strategy Before Inauguration

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—As early as July of last year, during the heat of a presidential race, a group of Democrat state attorneys general coordinated on challenging the White House on environmental policy.  Fast forward to 10 days after Republican Donald Trump was elected to another term as president, and Democrat attorneys general from…
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    House Committee ‘Keeping a Watchful Eye’ on Labor Department’s Funding of Pro-Union Group Amid ‘Conflict of Interest’ Concerns

    The House Committee on Education & the Workforce is monitoring the relationship between an agency within the Labor Department and the pro-union group the Solidarity Center following a recent Daily Signal report on a potential conflict of interest. "This report is deeply concerning and calls into question whether there was a significant conflict of interest,"…
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • News

    Labor Department Confirms Bureaucrat on Leave Amid Woke Conflict of Interest Questions

    A nonprofit that supports unions across the world received extra infusions of cash from a federal agency after one of the union group’s employees took a leadership role at the agency. She later went on to serve as the agency’s acting chief of staff. Lauren Stewart spent 15 years at the Solidarity Center, a left-leaning…
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • News

    With GOP Senate’s Approval of Labor Nominee, Trump’s Cabinet Is Almost Complete

    The Senate set a modern-day record for confirming a president’s Cabinet appointments on Tuesday when it voted to confirm former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., as secretary of labor.  The confirmation of Chavez-DeRemer means that all federal government Cabinet departments now have a Trump appointee leading them. The only Cabinet-level official yet to be confirmed by…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    Trump’s Pro-Union Labor Secretary Pick Draws Scrutiny From Senators of Both Parties

    Senators from both parties had tough questions Wednesday for Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, who breaks the traditional GOP mold in her support of unions. Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon who represents Trump’s efforts to woo union members, came under fire from Republicans concerned about her previous policies on…
    George Caldwell
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    • Opinion

    Europe Must Stop Dragging Its Feet and Oppose Chinese Forced Labor

    British parliamentarian William Wilberforce’s legacy rests on his bold public stance against slavery. The legendary 18th- and 19th-century abolitionist stood up before the British people in the House of Commons with a message of piercing moral clarity: Whatever the cost of abolition, there is no excuse for slavery. After several years of impassioned advocacy, Wilberforce…
    Jordan Embree
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    • Opinion

    New Biden Labor Dept. Rule Likely to Hurt Millions of Small Businesses, Independent Contractors

    Some 99% of American companies are small businesses, and 100% of businesses started out small, but a recently finalized rule from the Biden administration’s Labor Department will make it harder for small businesses to start, grow and succeed. As of last May 1, a White House news release pointed out, “Young firms, which often start…
    Rachel Greszler
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    • Opinion

    Labor Department Employees Not Returning to In-Person Work Raises Red Flags

    Long after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared over and the government said federal employees would return to in-person work, government building occupancy data shows that the Department of Labor headquarters had so few employees return that each employee had an average allocation of 1600 square feet of office space. That’s considerably larger than the average…
    Colin Aamot
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    • News

    ‘The Labor Market Is Weakening,’ Head of Job Creators Network Says of August Jobs Report 

    The U.S. unemployment rate increased in August, reaching the highest number since February 2022, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. "There’s no question about it now: The labor market is weakening," Alfredo Ortiz, chief executive officer and president of the Job Creators Network, said in a statement. "August marks the third…
    Samantha Aschieris
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    • Opinion

    Government Doesn’t Have Right to ‘Take Whatever It Wants of Your Labors,’ Federal Budget Expert Says

    It’s the duty of Congress to use American tax dollars responsibly, Richard Stern says. American taxpayers deserve to know where their money’s going because “the government doesn’t have the moral right to walk up and take whatever it wants of your labors because a bureaucrat thinks they know better than you how to use the…
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    Are Labor Markets Really Improving? Pulling Back Curtain on ‘Magic of Government Statistics’

    As America enters the thick of this year’s second quarter, the repercussions of the Biden administration’s economic policies become more apparent. New numbers from the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, released Tuesday, revealed that the number of job openings dropped to the lowest level since May 2021. The drop in job openings from…
    Kristen Eichamer
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    • News

    Biden Labor Rule ‘Plays Politics With Americans’ Retirement Savings,’ GOP Senator Says 

    A Republican senator says a Biden administration rule “plays politics with Americans’ retirement savings,” even as some Democrats push legislation seeking to codify that same Labor Department rule into law. President Joe Biden’s environmental, social, and governance rule would allow “fiduciaries to select a fund with a lower rate of return if it supports a progressive…
    Samantha Aschieris
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    • Opinion

    The Pandemic Changed How We Work. It’s Time for Labor Laws to Change, Too.

    The way we work has always been evolving, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated change. Progress that might otherwise have taken over a decade to achieve was crammed into a single year. With the rapid pace of change, it is critical that labor laws keep up with the times. Fortunately, a group of lawmakers have introduced…
    Rachel Greszler
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