Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) said the March jobs report continued the trend of positive job growth, and highlighted the need for a bipartisan jobs bill to propel the recovery to the next level. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent, it’s lowest mark since January 2009, and filing for jobless benefits also fell the month.  The economy added 120,000 non-farm jobs in March, with the private sector adding 121,000 jobs overall, as government jobs dropped slightly.  The economy has now added over 850,000 jobs since December, and in the last two years, there have been close to 4 million private sector jobs added. 

Rep. Engel said, “We need a jobs bill to lower our still-high unemployment rate. Congress needs to come together in a bipartisan manner and pass jobs legislation to aid our recovery.  We cannot forget where we were during the tail end of the Bush Administration when job losses measured in the hundreds of thousands each month.  We have made amazing strides over the last few years to get from the depths of late-2008 to where we have added hundreds of thousands of jobs in 2012 alone. It is disappointing to see the momentum experienced so far in 2012 hit a speed bump, but that just accentuates the clear need for legislation to boost job growth.  There are many external problems that could deflect our recovery - Europe’s financial crisis, Middle East tensions, etc. – so we still need to do all we can. 

“There is still much to be done to help the many working families struggling with unemployment, or under-employment.  Together, we should help these families.”

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