Dems Make Political Hay Over Jobs Numbers

Friday, February 03, 2012

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area Democratic lawmakers pounced on this morning's positive jobs numbers to champion President Barack Obama's policies. The U.S. Labor Department announced earlier today that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3%, down 0.2 of a percentage point from December.

Since August, the jobless rate has declined from 9.1% to 8.3%, "and the number of unemployed persons has declined by about 1.2 million," John M. Galvin, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told a joint congressional committee in Washington. Gathered in front of the Youngstown Business Incubator downtown, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-33 Canfield, and state Reps. Ron Gerberry, D-59 Austintown, and Bob Hagan, D-60 Youngstown, credited Obama and policies such as his stimulus plan – officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“The facts show that we as a country have gained jobs for the past 23 months under the president" and decreased unemployment for the past five months, Schiavoni said. "In the area we've actually outperformed the state average 2-1 in creating jobs and gaining jobs. Those are facts that can't be disputed," he added. "It doesn’t give cause to celebrate in the streets because people are still struggling … but it's progress."

The president should brag – "all of us should" – about a stimulus program that helped save General Motors Co. and provided assistance to V&M Star, whose parent company is constructing two new plants here. "It hasn't been easy because the Republicans have fought him every step of the way," Schiavoni said.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, hailed the new jobs numbers, which he said demonstrates progress. "But in Ohio and across our country, there are still too many Americans who are looking for work, but can’t find it. Their stories compel us to work together -- Democrats and Republican alike -- to move our economy forward,” Brown said. “We should build upon today’s good news by implementing a national manufacturing strategy that enforces trade law, encourages clean energy innovation, and trains workers for emerging industries."

Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, made an even more explicit case for supporting Democrats such as Obama and Brown, and for opposing the Republicans likely to face them on the ballot, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and state Treasurer Josh Mandel. When Obama took office, the economy was shedding more than 700,000 jobs each month, "the economy was spiraling of control and the economic security of millions of Ohioans and middle-class Americans was vanishing," Redfern said. Thanks to "the vision and swift action" Obama, Brown and their fellow Democrats took to address the economic crisis, "we are moving in the right direction."

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, acknowledged it's good to see what he characterized as "some improvement" in the jobless rate and that people are starting to return to work. “However, this doesn’t take into account the 3 million person reduction in labor force participation compared to pre-recession levels," Portman said.

"If those people were still counted within the labor force, the unemployment rate would be 10%, which is a more accurate gauge of the current jobs environment. So clearly, we still need to do a lot more to get the economy moving in the right direction and to help so many struggling families." Portman called on Washington to get control of its staggering debt and deficits, reform the tax code to make America more competitive, stop the job-killing overregulation, enact an energy policy that stops our dependence on foreign oil, and reduce health-care costs.”

Economist Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics, Pepper Pike, pointed out that payrolls increased far more than the consensus estimate of about 135,000 or his projection of 150,000, "Jobs and income growth are what have been lacking from this recovery, and the January results help move the ball forward on these fronts," he said. "But this latest gain can still be judged “light” when compared to other post-deep-recession periods which produced 400k monthly job gains (on a smaller labor force base)."