Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement of the unemployment rate dropping below 10 percent for the first time in months.

“According to the US Department of Labor, over eight million jobs were lost during the “Great Recession,” since December 2007, the most since World War II. The damage was swift and severe from this economic crisis, and unfortunately, the recovery will be slow. This drop in the unemployment rate to 9.7 percent is a positive sign that shows the recovery is working, but there is a long way to go. I will continue to work with my colleagues in the House to pass legislation to create jobs and provide businesses with the resources they need to help bring Americans back to work.

“Make no mistake, without the actions taken by Congress and President Obama last year, we would be losing thousands of more jobs each month. The Recovery Act has already created or saved nearly 2 million jobs so far. There is much work still to be done, and leaders of both parties must work together to keep our recovery on track. I call on the Senate to act rapidly on the jobs package passed by the House in December so we can move closer towards stemming the flow of job loss, and turn the tide so we can begin talking about steady job gains throughout the country.”