U.S. Labor Secretary: How American workers have come first in 2025 | Opinion

What a historic year 2025 has been, and under President Trump’s bold leadership, the Department of Labor moved quickly to put American workers first.

Everything we’ve achieved this year has been through that lens, including our efforts to expand access to employment and training opportunities, prepare workers for the jobs of the future, ensure American jobs go to American workers, and slash costly regulations.

To make America skilled again and fill in-demand, mortgage-paying jobs in the trades, promoting registered apprenticeships has been a top focus for the Labor Department. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order setting an ambitious but logical goal of one million active apprentices nationwide. Since January, I’m excited to announce that we’ve added nearly 300,000 new apprentices and registered over 2,300 new apprenticeship programs.

I’m confident this momentum will continue as the “Working Families Tax Cut” takes effect, which will make workforce Pell Grants available to our future tradesmen and women. The Department of Labor has also awarded $86 million in new skills training investments for states to upskill our workforce. These financial tools are opening up training and educational pathways to help workers get a foot in the door, especially for emerging and high-demand fields like AI and AI infrastructure.

As part of the Trump Administration’s “AI Action Plan,” the Labor Department is also working on launching an “AI Workforce Hub” to analyze how artificial intelligence is reshaping work and skills demand. We are also taking critical steps to accelerate AI-related registered apprenticeships and expand AI skills development within all apprenticeship occupations.

Another win for the American worker in 2025 came with the help of my friend, Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Our departments are collaborating to target grant dollars more effectively, so students have clearer, more direct pathways from school to fulfilling careers. Nearly 70 percent of 4th and 8th graders aren’t proficient in reading, a challenge that undermines long‑term opportunity and the supply of skilled workers.

That’s why I’m working with Secretary McMahon to administer career and technical education programs and create a streamlined federal education and workforce system. Since Oct. 1, we have successfully processed nearly 800 payment requests from 43 states and territories and onboarded all grantees, getting resources to the front lines faster.

After students receive a high-quality education and graduate from school, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to ensure their job opportunities are not being replaced by cheap foreign labor. We launched nearly 200 investigations into companies suspected of abusing the H‑1B visa program as part of Project Firewall, an effort to ensure employers do not unlawfully displace American workers. Through investigations and penalties, I’m going to keep working to protect wages, recover back pay, and ensure employers are following the law, so American workers know we have their backs.

Thanks to President Trump’s America First leadership, all net job growth this year has gone to American-born workers in the private sector. This is a huge turnaround from the Biden administration, when job growth was padded by foreign-born workers and a ballooning federal government. The President has also worked to reverse the previous administration’s affordability crisis, providing working families with more purchasing power as wages go up and inflation comes down – reaching its lowest level since the spring of 2021. Average private sector weekly earnings are on track to rise 4.2 percent in President Trump’s first full year, putting more money in the pockets of hardworking families to put gas in their cars and food on the table.

Reducing regulatory burdens on businesses is another critical component to lowering costs for everyday Americans. At the Department of Labor, we announced 63 deregulatory actions in an aggressive effort to cut red tape, spur job creation, and fuel economic opportunity. Commonsense is also being restored in Washington, as discriminatory DEI requirements have been rescinded, lowering compliance costs for employers by at least $1 billion a year.

As we approach a new year, I’m determined to keep this momentum going. Getting American workers the job opportunities they deserve, expanding career pathways, and ensuring our men and women in the workforce can keep more of their hard-earned money remain top priorities for the Trump Administration. I look forward to doubling down on our success in putting the American worker first and ushering in a golden age of economic prosperity.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer is U.S. Secretary of Labor.

This story was originally published December 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM with the headline "U.S. Labor Secretary: How American workers have come first in 2025 | Opinion."