Secretary of Commerce on Bad Jobs Data: ‘We’ve Had Weather Issues’

PRITZKER: "Our country continues to grow. We’ve had weather issues. The West Coast ports slowed down, has had some impact on GDP. So there’s some things that are temporal but the United States continues to be the number one place in the world to invest.

In fact, wages numbers have -- wages are ticking up, so we’re very optimistic about the future in the United States. If you think about the fact, you know, strongest place to invest according to A.T. Kearney two years in a row, great universities, investment in R&D, so many things that we have going for us, low cost and abundant energy, a terrific workforce, incredibly productive, very flexible.

So lots of positive things going on in the United States. It doesn’t mean we don’t have more to do. We still have to invest in infrastructure and that's a big issue that's facing Congress as to what we'e going to do for infrastructure investment  over the upcoming years. We’ve got to also stay focused on making sure our workforce is trained for the jobs of the 21st century. We need to get our trade agreements done.

Those are issues that will be coming up in Congress in April. It's very important that we keep markets open around the world for United States product because we know that 11.6 million Americans today, their jobs are supported by the companies that are exporting. It's extremely important that markets are available for American products."