Chairman Miller Statement on May Jobs Numbers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the employment situation data for May 2010. “It is good news that our nation's economy is improving and headed in the right direction. Unemployment is down and the economy is creating jobs. In the first five months of 2010, the economy created nearly half a million new jobs, not including temporary census jobs. It is easy to forget that not too long ago this country was shedding more than 700,000 jobs a month. The turnaround is the result of tough choices that this Congress and the Obama administration had to make to save us from total disaster caused by the financial scandals.
“However, for the millions of Americans still looking for work, the economic recovery cannot come fast enough. And, we are seeing reports of layoffs of hundreds of thousands of workers beginning this summer in local communities. These layoffs have the potential to stall the economic recovery because these workers pay mortgages, shop at local stores and provide for their families. Our nation can ill afford the economic consequences of an additional hundreds of thousands of workers going without a paycheck.
“Our responsibility to keep the economic recovery moving forward has not ended. That’s why I introduced the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812) earlier this year. It will create up to a million jobs quickly in both the public and private sectors and help restore vital services that families rely on. I am pleased to see so many of my colleagues support this legislation and that Senator Sherrod Brown announced he will be introducing a companion bill in the Senate.”
Next Article