How Can Trump Get Anything Done With All Those Empty Seats?

During Workforce Development Week at the White House in mid-June, President Trump and his top advisers spoke urgently about the need to fill millions of vacant jobs. “There are currently 6 million job openings in the United States—vacant jobs that can be filled,” Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta told reporters. “This is the highest number of job vacancies ever.”

That may be true, but when it comes to job vacancies, Trump & Co. would do well to look closer to home. The White House has struggled to fill hundreds of critical political appointee positions in federal agencies, making it harder to advance the president’s agenda. From the Department of State, where no assistant secretaries and only a few ambassadors have been appointed, to the Department of Justice, where dozens of U.S. attorney positions remain vacant, Trump’s government has a skeletal feel as it heads into its sixth month. At the Department of Labor, the president has yet to fill any of the 13 senior positions that support Acosta. That includes the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office tasked with tracking the number of job vacancies nationwide.