Elaine Chao, who served as former President Donald Trump's secretary of transportation, chided workers on Monday for not snapping up available jobs on the market.
While appearing on Bloomberg TV, Chao said that while last week's big jobs report was welcome news, there still aren't enough Americans joining the labor force.
"If you look at the labor participation rate, it is still very low, about 61.6 percent," she said. "We, as a country, have to encourage people to come back to work. When we are seeing in the supply chain crisis is basically the lack of workers. There are not enough people to produce goods and services. That is putting inflationary pressures on our economy, adding to the woes of the supply chain."
She then said that it was time for Americans who don't currently have jobs to suck it up and get to work, even if they had already retired or were staying out of the labor force due to fears about the novel coronavirus.
"We basically have 5 million people now who have left the workforce, and because of COVID, some have retired early, some have decided not to come back," she said. "We are going to need these workers to do their patriotic duty to come back and help the economy."
Watch the video below.
Former Trump official tells workers it's their 'patriotic duty' to take whatever jobs are offered to www.youtube.com
