The United States exceeded economists’ expectations by adding 103,000 jobs to the nation’s workforce in September, but the uptick did little to shake an idle unemployment rate as it sits unchanged at 9.1 percent, according to the Labor Department.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics credits the expansion in employment to the 45,000 disgruntled Verizon employees previously on strike who have returned to work, accounting for nearly half of all job creation last month.
RNC Chair Reince Priebus took the opportunity to blast the president’s jobs bill, calling it “Stimulus 2.0” and denouncing its touted potential impact on the country’s economy.
“Today’s disappointing jobs report underscores why President Obama’s Stimulus 2.0 is not the answer to put Americans back to work. After putting $825 billion on the nation’s credit card only to have 32 straight months of unemployment at 8 percent or above, it is remarkable that the President would double down on the same policies at the tune of nearly half a trillion dollars in more ‘stimulus’ spending,” said Priebus.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was even less than enthusiastic about September’s “sad numbers” saying Democrats “need to stop campaigning, start listening and start working,” a likely rollover from Thursday’s Obama’s-thrown-in-the-towel jab.
“Our unemployment rate has been higher than eight percent for more than two-and-a-half years, far above what [Obama] promised with the ‘stimulus,’” Boehner said in a statement.
Katherine Abraham, a member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, also acknowledged that the stagnant 9.1 percent unemployment rate was “unacceptably high” and promoted the American Jobs Act as a means to expedite the economic recovery process.
“Clearly, we need faster economic growth to put Americans back to work,” Abraham said, but she reminded that September’s jobs numbers be taken with a grain of salt.
“The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision,” she said. “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”