Column - Putting People to Work

Putting People to Work
Rep. Boozman's Column for the Week of July 25, 2005

Washington, Jul 25 - Last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that the budget deficit for this fiscal year will be dramatically lower than expected. Now, on the heels of that news comes word from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week.

First-time claims for state unemployment insurance fell by 34,000 last week. It was the largest one-week decline since December 2002. New claims for state unemployment are at their lowest level since April.

Not only was this welcome news across the country, but it was specifically good to see in Arkansas as our state has, at times, not seen the kind of job creation that has taken place in other states. With the release of these numbers though, it has become clear that jobs are being created in Arkansas. So much so, that our state's jobless rate is the lowest we've seen in four years.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that close to 50,000 more Arkansans had jobs in June than this time last year. Arkansas' unemployment rate dropped from 5 percent to 4.8 percent, the lowest since 2001. The job growth in the Third District continues to fuel the statewide growth as the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) added 1,975 workers last month and 1,200 workers were added last month in the Fort Smith MSA.

Job growth across the country has steadily increased since we passed the two landmark economic stimulus packages in 20001 and 2003. Those two bills are directly responsible for the 3.7 million jobs that have been added to our national economy since May 2003 and the steady job gains we have seen for each of the last twenty-five months.

The unemployment rate has continued its downward trend and is in fact moving down faster than expected. It now stands at 5 percent, which is a level of unemployment unseen since September 2001. This number is a lower unemployment rate than we saw throughout the 1990's, where it averaged 5.8 percent, and the 1980's, where it averaged 7.3 percent.

There is no doubt that job creation would not be pushing along at this pace without the action taken by Congress. The two stimulus bills did exactly what we hoped they would, which was to jumpstart the economy and create an environment where businesses would begin adding employees to their payroll.

More Americans are working now than in the history of the nation. By allowing individuals and corporations to keep more of the money they earn, we encourage an environment that promotes job creation. We must continue to follow this course by tightening federal spending and protecting American families from tax hikes so that we can continue to see our employment figures rise.

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