Chairman Graves Statement on June Jobs Report

Statement

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) today issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that an abysmal 18,000 jobs were created in June while the unemployment rate rose, yet again, to 9.2%:

"Today's poor unemployment report is further proof that the President's policies are simply not working. With today's announcement, June marks the 29th consecutive month that unemployment has been at or above 8 percent--the level the President said unemployment would never reach if the stimulus passed. Unemployment has not stayed above 8 percent for so many consecutive months since the Great Depression.

"However, June's job numbers demonstrate the role that small businesses play in growing our economy and addressing our nation's deep unemployment crisis. The payroll company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported that businesses that employ fewer than 50 workers added 88,000 jobs in June, up from just 27,000 in May. Small businesses are essential to our nation's economic prosperity -- generating about 65% of net new jobs over the past 15 years. In order to further revive this economy, we must first look at ways to help small businesses prosper.

"As Washington considers a deal to raise our debt ceiling, we must remain focused on removing barriers for small business job creation by restoring fiscal discipline and putting our economy on a sustainable path by cutting spending, lowering taxes and removing burdensome regulations."

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