Exclusive — Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling: A 4-Year Degree Leads to Debt, Not Practical Job Skills

With many Americans struggling under crippling student loan debt after chasing the empty promises of a four-year college degree, the Trump administration is trying to create opportunities for young people to access high-paying, high-skill jobs out of high school, Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling told Breitbart News.

Sonderling spoke with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow at the 2026 Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) National Leadership Summit on August 31 about the 900,000 new private sector jobs created during the Trump administration and how following job market needs and fostering a “renaissance in manufacturing” will launch young people into the workforce without putting them in debt.

“When President Trump ran, he promised two things: high-paying, high-skilled private sector jobs. So, we’re seeing a renaissance in manufacturing. Trillions of dollars of investments are coming in. We’re seeing investments from foreign companies, foreign countries, domestic companies saying, ‘You know what? We want our products built in America and built by Americans’ because American workers — obviously, and I think we’re all biased — are the best. But the investment is only one piece,” Sonderling said.

“For instance, [we have] 83,000 new manufacturing construction jobs. So those construction jobs are out there building these factories — that’s going to lead to actual manufacturing jobs in critical areas that left our shores. Everything from automobile manufacturing, to shipbuilding, to critical infrastructure, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing that we saw during COVID — we didn’t have a supply chain,” he continued. “So, as we re-industrialize that, the most important thing we can do at the Department of Labor is making sure that American workers have the opportunities to get these jobs, and they need the skills to be able to get these jobs.” 

Sonderling went on to say that having a four-year college degree “does not lead to the skill for your first day of work.” 

“It leads to debt, and that’s what we’re changing,” he said.

“So, we’re working very closely with our workforce boards, with community colleges, to have industry dictate what that curriculum is. We’re having employers come in saying, ‘Here’s the jobs that are actually available. Here’s the jobs that we’re bringing back, [that] we’re re-industrializing in America.’ Two great examples: Toyota is bringing the Tacoma production line from Mexico to San Antonio. Harley Davidson is bringing back motorcycle production from Thailand to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania,” he said.

Sonderling emphasized that the U.S. needs “workers on the ground who are able to take those jobs and have the skills for those jobs.” 

“We need those companies to tell us where they are so we can immediately start requiring those courses, so when you graduate high school, you have a high-skilled, high-paying job available to you that doesn’t require four-year degrees,” he said. “But that’s not going to work if we don’t know where that’s going.” 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.