President Obama listens as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez speaks at the White House Oct. 7, 2015. Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Labor Secretary Likens Department’s Job Centers to Match.com
President Obama’s cabinet secretary was a game contestant on the NPR quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” on Saturday.
Saturday’s broadcast of the NPR news quiz “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” featured Labor Secretary Thomas Perez describing his department’s 2,500 job centers nationwide as similar to Match.com.
Perez was introduced by host Peter Sagal as the man for whom “technically, his job is all the jobs. What exactly to you do?”
The secretary invoked the online dating service, saying “We help job seekers who want to punch their ticket to the middle class. We match them with employers who want to grow their business.”
Reminded that “this is still a capitalist country” and that the government can’t merely command employers to hire, Perez said, “We’ve worked with a lot of state and local governments to help raise the minimum wage because the Republican leadership in Washington has refused to do so.”
Asked if he was slandered during his confirmation hearing, he called that “a fair statement.”
Asked what skeletons were in his closet, Perez said he once went into a grocery and entered “a six –item line with nine items.” He revealed that as a teenager his first job was holding three paper routes, and that later he picked up golf balls on a driving range.
Sagal observed that “A driving range is probably excellent training for a Senate confirmation hearing . . . because basically, you're dodging around old white men that are trying to kill you.”
“Sounds about right,” Perez responded.