Ranking Member Maloney on the latest Department of Labor jobs report, showing the economy added 158,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.9 percent, for the 71st consecutive month of private-sector job growth:
“The pace of job creation in January and the slight dip in the unemployment rate are welcome news given the turbulence of the global economy and the financial markets. Inflation remains low, wages are starting to pick up and gasoline is relatively cheap. But still-struggling American families could use some help from Congress, which has done so little to reinforce the economic gains we have made since the depths of the Great Recession..."

In advance of the President’s last State of the Union address, Joint Economic Committee Ranking Member Carolyn B. Maloney (N.Y.) Tuesday said the economic recovery -- from what former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke called the “worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression” – has been “impressive”.

The most recent edition of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democrats’ State Economic Snapshots shows that private-sector employment increased in 35 states and the District of Columbia in November. “We don’t need statisticians to tell us that many people are not benefiting from our economy and more work needs to be done to ensure that they do,” saidRanking Member Maloney. “But the latest data show that the economy is still improving and the picture is much brighter today than when President Obama took office.”

“Today’s job report reinforces the stability of our economy, after seven long years digging ourselves out of the Bush-era recession. The fact that the Federal Reserve is even considering raising short-term interest rates for the first time in almost a decade is indication itself that President Obama’s economic policies have been a success.”