WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joint Economic Committee Chairman Dan Coats (R-Ind.) issued the following statement regarding today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that the U.S. economy added 151,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 percent.

“This lackluster jobs report, combined with less than one percent economic growth during the first half of the year and a recent report showing labor productivity is down, suggests the Obama Administration’s policies continue to let many Americans down. The economy needs to add more than 1.37 million private-sector jobs per month for the rest of the year to match the average job growth of modern recoveries. On this Labor Day weekend, too many Americans are unemployed or underemployed. We need to reduce burdensome regulations and streamline our tax code to untie the hands of job creators and help us reach our economic potential.”