The Biden administration remains perplexed by the number of eligible workers who aren't taking available jobs, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh tells "Axios on HBO."
The big picture: The U.S. economy added just 194,000 jobs in September, far below economist expectations.
Particularly surprising was the seasonally-adjusted drop in public school employment.
Walsh suggested that COVID concerns, particularly for public-facing service jobs, could be keeping people out of the workforce. He also mentioned that the pandemic caused many people to seek out a new career.
Some economists and elected officials, particularly Republican governors, had argued that ending expended unemployment benefits would result in a major jobs uptick. But the evidence, so far, has not borne that out.
