The economic downturn has taken a toll on U.S. labor as the statistics show lows with unemployment rates and the work week, but Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis assures that she and the President know they need to do "everything we can to create jobs."

Solis told FOX Business Network’s Liz Claman the situation began in January, with jobs losses up and down since then. 

However, the new Job Opening and Labor Turnover data said the job opening’s and layoffs is dismal reporting that with every six unemployed, there is one job opening, while the pace of hiring is at the slowest in the history of the JOLT survey. 

“I know last month there were four million people that were hired in jobs, and so there is still that opportunity,” Solis said. “Maybe people need to think about reassessing their skills and maybe looking at where the job growth will be.”

Through growing industries like renewable energy, hi-tech, and health care, Solis said there could be an area for potential careers and incentives for job training. The Department of Labor promotes job training by paying for it and providing the essential programs. 

“I’m very excited about what’s going to happen with the infrastructure that is going to be coming out to help put people back to work,” Solis said.

After Vice President Joe Biden said this weekend, that the recovery may be further off than initially thought, Solis added it could take a while to see a recovery. She thinks the president and vice president have been clear on the longevity of the process, and the time it could take to recover. 

“I think that’s the message that the American public needs to hear,” Solis added. “That we are strongly behind this economy and strongly behind our working families.”

The Secretary sees opportunities to train and motivate people to work, but without immediate results the American people may get impatient. The goal is to remain focused on job development, which will increase employment training and stimulate the economy. 

“It’s not an easy task to get a $787 billion stimulus program approved in record time,” she said. “So, let’s have some patience…These are real things that are happening. People are spending that check. It is going back into the community which is helping to stimulate our local commercial industries that are right now also suffering.”

Solis admitted she is not completely comfortable with the pace at which jobs are filtering down, but she is grateful for the work she has done and hopes to continue increasing employment rates and training. 

With the increased in the unemployment rate from 4.8% 16 months ago to 9.5%, Solis said the Beureau of Labor is in ‘no position to forecast’ where the unemployment rate will go. 

“We probably will see an up peak and then again it may go down in a couple of months once we see the recovery money in infrastructure programs really hitting our local communities and our local government,” Solis said. 

The Secretary can’t say if things will get worse, but she assured the stimulus program has saved jobs, and the government is trying to ‘roll out federal dollars’ to the local governments and grant workers the appropriate training.  

“From December and January to now --- We have managed to stabilize at least that tremendous number of job loss,” she said. “And I think that we’re going to have to restructure our work force. The manufacturing industry has to change. It has to be competitive, it has to look forward to where there’s going to be growth.”  

Meanwhile, some employers have asked their employees to take unpaid leave, resulting in an upset for the average worker, but Solis said she has been working with businesses to discuss turning that around by replacing current jobs with new innovative jobs. 

Solis is meeting with the local chamber of commerce and industries that are looking to expand their business with assistance from the federal government. In turn, the Department of Labor is offering advice on how to help companies move into different technologies.  

In her interview with Solis, Claman noted the historically low 33-hour work week, and Solis said the week will be restored as soon as there is a steady recovery in job growth and employment.   

“I can tell you already that just in the infrastructure funding, there are about 20,000 programs that are projects that have already been approved, and about 6,000 are in construction,” Solis said. 

The Department of Labor hopes to see an effort from all fronts including the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration, Commerce, the Department of Energy and Health and Human Services. 

With plans still in progress and money to spend -- $250 million for jobs in health careers and IT -- Solis was unable to confirm the need for a second stimulus. She said the major priority for the administration was working with current programs to get ‘more bang for our dollar." 

According to Solis, without the stimulus, unemployment would be much higher and there would be more job loss. However, before there is a second stimulus, she hopes to extend all of the already-approve dollars. 

The Department of Labor is looking at innovation and new technologies to increase jobs and get the economy running steadily again. Solis said she is convinced the recovery dollars will help in the long run. 

“We’re not looking at just a quick fix here, we’re looking at something that is going to take us out of this bad economy for the next decade,” Solis said. “And we have to make these investments that were neglected in the last eight years.”