Joint Economic Committee Chairman Dan Coats (R-Ind.) issued a statement regarding today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that the U.S. economy added 271,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, including 268,000 private sector jobs, and the unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged at 5.0%. The labor force participation rate remained at a recovery low of 62.4%. The long-term unemployed as a percent of the jobless ticked up to 26.8%.

“It’s encouraging to see that the economy added jobs at a greater rate in October, yet labor force participation remains at a record low. Jobs added to the economy have averaged only 187,000 over the past three months, and job growth in 2015 is on pace to be slower than 2014. That is not progress. Congress must pass and the Administration must enact pro-growth policies to put Americans back to work and spur on our economy.”