Economy Jobs

Unemployment Falls to 5.9 Percent, GOP Shrugs

Numbers released today by the Labor Department show that unemployment has fallen to a six-year low. Furthermore, numbers for the previous two months were revised upward.

via Bloomberg

The 248,000 gain in payrolls last month followed a 180,000 increase in August that was bigger than previously estimated, the Labor Department reported in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 215,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to the lowest level since July 2008, from 6.1 percent. [...]

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 100 economists ranged from gains of 155,000 to 265,000 after a previously reported 142,000 advance. Revisions to prior reports added 69,000 jobs to payrolls in the previous two months.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the numbers aren’t good enough, while Speaker of the House John Boehner released a laughably vapid statement.

Only Republicans are offering real solutions to help get people back to work, lower costs at home, and restore opportunity for all. We have dozens of good jobs bills stuck in the Democratic-run Senate that would help hardworking families.

There is no doubt in my mind that unemployment would still be 10 percent of higher under a Republican administration.

Just imagine where we would be if there had never been a stimulus bill or a bailout of the auto industry. Imagine where we would be with privatization and deregulation of labor and new tax cuts for the rich.

The average person probably has no idea how much worse things could be.