Responding to today’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, issued the following statement:

“Today’s employment report, despite a better than expected gain of 172,000 private payroll jobs, yet again, confirms the failure of President Obama’s economic policies.” Brady added, “Using the White House’s own metrics of talking about private payroll job gains from the cycle low, President Obama’s recovery remains in last place among post-World War II recoveries.”

“Using the President’s own metrics, his recovery lags the average recovery by 4.2 million private jobs. And it lags the pace of the stronger Reagan recovery by 7.3 million. If this recovery had been like the Reagan recovery, we would have added 11.8 million private sector jobs instead of the 4.5 million created under Obama.”

“The problem is that the President’s continued insistence on higher taxes, more spending, more red tape, and his government takeover of health care are stifling economic growth and killing job creation.”

Brady called the unemployment rate of 8.3%, “Another record for the President. For forty-two consecutive months, we’ve seen the unemployment rate above 8.0%. Without the decline in labor force participation, since the unemployment rate peaked at 10.0% in October 2009, the unemployment rate would have risen to 10.1%.”