Washington, DC – The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported that in December 2011, 200,000 payroll jobs were created and that the unemployment rate edged down to 8.5 percent.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said today “While the last month’s rise in the number of payroll jobs is welcome, the decline in labor force participation masks the true magnitude of the nation’s unemployment problem. To make a fair assessment of the health of the nation’s labor market you need to look at labor force participation and job growth.  Both are crucial components of future economic growth.”

“While I am most gratified to see more of our people with paying jobs, the so-called ‘recovery’ that the Obama administration tells us we are experiencing continues to proceed at an unacceptable pace,” Brady said. 

“As we enter the fourth year of the Obama presidency, job prospects remain so poor that many American workers have lost hope of finding work and have stopped looking. If the percentage of Americans employed or looking for work at the beginning of the recession in December 2007 not declined, the unemployment rate would have been 11.6  percent in today’s report instead of 8.5 percent. 

“Again, I call upon the President to work with Congress to bring this figure down. We can do that by growing the American economy without raising taxes on working American families and businesses.  I very much hope that as we enter a new year, the President will have a change of heart. No one benefits from an anemic economy.”

The growth in payroll jobs is better than a loss, but according to the testimony of Dr. Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, before the Joint Economic Committee, the U.S. economy must consistently generate around 130,000 payroll jobs per month just to keep the unemployment rate stable over time. Unfortunately, payroll job growth exceeded this threshold in only 5 of the last 12 months.

Note:  Today’s employment report incorporates the annual revision to the household survey. Seasonally adjusted data from January 2007 forward were revised using updated seasonal adjustment factors. A release containing supplemental comments may be issued following a review of the revised data.