JEC Chair Maloney's Statement on February Jobs Report

Washington D.C. - Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released the following statement on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' February jobs report showing that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7% and 36,000 total nonfarm jobs were lost:

"The two snowstorms that pounded the Northeast during the week of February 7-13 may have had an impact on the jobs numbers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), so we have to be careful not to read too much into this month's data. 

"But we also know, regardless of what the exact numbers are for this month, far too many Americans are unemployed.  I am committed to ensuring that Congress is doing everything it can to create jobs right now and put Americans back to work.  The jobs bill that Congress is preparing to send to the President, which includes a scaled down version of my employer tax credit, is a good step and we will do more.

"Though the labor market remains weak overall, we are seeing some bright spots in certain sectors of the economy.  The temporary help sector, an early indicator of progress in the labor market, continues to show growth, adding 48,000 positions in February and 284,000 jobs since September.  After declining for three years, the manufacturing sector has stabilized.  The Diffusion Index in Manufacturing reached 54.9, the first time it has moved above 50 since the recession began, indicating that more subsectors within manufacturing are expanding rather than contracting."

###

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.