President Donald Trump said Monday he will nominate Keith E. Sonderling, the acting U.S. labor secretary, to hold the job permanently, announcing the pick in a post on his Truth Social account on June 29. The choice elevates a lawyer who has run the Labor Department on a temporary basis since the spring and sends his name to the Senate for confirmation.

Sonderling has led the department since April 20, after Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid investigations into alleged misconduct involving her and her family. He had served as her deputy for more than a year before stepping up.

In his announcement, Trump praised Sonderling’s record and said he had earned the permanent post. The president called him dedicated to delivering results for working people and said he expected him to do an excellent job in the expanded role.

Sonderling is not a new face in Washington. The Senate confirmed him as deputy labor secretary last year in a 53-46 vote that fell along party lines. During Trump’s first term, he held leadership roles at the department’s Wage and Hour Division, the office that enforces minimum wage and overtime rules. He also served as a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration.

His portfolio in the second Trump term has stretched beyond Labor. Sonderling has also acted as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a small agency the administration moved to wind down. Some of his actions at the library agency were later blocked by a judge, and that case remains on appeal.

For the business world, who runs the Labor Department is not a minor personnel story. The agency writes and enforces the rules that shape how companies hire, pay, and classify workers. Overtime thresholds, independent-contractor standards, workplace safety enforcement, and wage-and-hour audits all flow from this office. A permanent secretary, rather than an acting one, gives employers a clearer sense of where those rules are heading.

Sonderling’s signature focus has been workforce training, and that is where his agenda touches the most companies. He has championed registered apprenticeships, the earn-while-you-learn programs that let workers train on the job without taking on college debt. The administration has set a goal of reaching 1 million active apprentices, and the department says more than 386,000 new apprentices have signed up since the term began.

He has tied that push tightly to artificial intelligence. Under Sonderling, the department released an AI Literacy Framework early this year and later opened an online portal to help employers build AI skills into apprenticeship programs across fields like health care, finance, manufacturing, and construction. The aim is to prepare American workers for jobs created by the AI buildout rather than leave them exposed to it.

That message lands at a moment of real anxiety. Employers and workers alike are watching to see how quickly AI reshapes the job market, and the Labor Department has been tasked with studying where the technology could displace workers. Sonderling has argued the government’s best move is to make sure American workers are trained and ready when companies bring investment and new roles to the table.

He has also leaned into the administration’s reindustrialization theme, pointing to a rise in manufacturing and construction jobs and crediting investment from large employers. He has cited companies such as Lockheed Martin and Toyota as examples of private spending bringing higher-paying work back to American soil, and he has worked with firms including IBM, M&T Bank, and AstraZeneca on apprenticeship efforts. A separate $98 million round of funding has targeted pre-apprenticeships for young people aged 16 to 24.

The nomination still needs Senate approval, but Sonderling’s prior confirmation as deputy suggests a path through the chamber. If confirmed, he would formally take the Cabinet seat and continue overseeing the department’s enforcement work and its workforce programs without the “acting” label that has limited his standing.

For employers, the practical takeaway is continuity. Sonderling has been setting the department’s direction for months, so his confirmation would lock in the apprenticeship and AI-training agenda already underway rather than signal a new course. Henry Mack, the assistant secretary for employment and training, has worked alongside him on much of that effort.

The bigger question for businesses is enforcement posture. As a permanent secretary with a full mandate, Sonderling will set the tone on how aggressively the department polices wage, safety, and classification rules, decisions that reach into nearly every workplace in the country.

JBizNews Desk
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