REP. MALONEY FLOOR STATEMENT ON LABOR MARKET

Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), gave the following speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.   

"Madam Speaker, while it’s a bit too early to draw conclusions about the health of the job market after  a single month– a look back at the trends over the past two years can provide some valuable perspective. This chart shows monthly job losses since the start of the recession. The losses began here – in January of 2008, one full year before President Obama took office (Point 1). In February 2008, the Joint Economic Committee issued a report in which we solemnly warned that the economy was on the brink (Point 2). This is September 2008, when the Republican candidate for President declared he thought that the fundamentals of our economy were sound, just before job losses accelerated (Point 3). Here is January of 2009 when President Obama took office, and things began to change (Point 4). Last month, for the first time in two years, job losses appear to have stabilized (Point 5). While one month does not constitute a trend, one election seems to have made quite a difference."

The Joint Economic Committee, established under the Employment Act of 1946, was created by Congress to review economic conditions and to analyze the effectiveness of economic policy.
 www.jec.senate.gov
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