WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following statement this morning following the announcement that North Carolina's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in December. This is a decrease of 2.6 percent from the 9.5 percent unemployment rate in December of 2012:

"North Carolina is witnessing an economic comeback - and this is no accident. Over the past year, North Carolina has seen its unemployment rate drop over two points from 9.5 percent to 6.9 percent. This comes after North Carolina declined to extend federal unemployment benefits for nearly 70,000 people in July. In the three months following this decision, civilian employment in our state rose by 39,400."

"Our state is starting to see the rewards of making prudent decisions for growing a healthy economy. As we listen to the president's State of the Union address tonight, many of us should be asking important questions in light of these facts. Should we continue to increase the burdens facing employers through Washington-knows-best regulations, or should we do the right thing, cut spending, lower taxes and unleash the power of our innovators and job creators? Governor Pat McCrory and the Republican-led General Assembly have instituted important economic reforms that have led to the successes we are witnessing today. It's time Washington learns the same lesson."

The success of Republican economic policies in North Carolina is no accident, as noted by Wells Fargo Securities economist Mark Vitner in the Charlotte Observer last month:

In July, North Carolina decided to end federal extended unemployment benefits, a move that meant the loss of unemployment insurance payments for more than 70,000 North Carolinians. Economic literature, Vitner wrote, has suggested that such benefits have two impacts on the labor force: They raise the required wage for someone to take a job, and they keep people seeking jobs because it’s a requirement of receiving benefits.

In his study, Vitner found evidence that job seekers who had used up their benefits took jobs because the civilian employment in the state rose by 39,400 over the past three months.

“A cursory review ... suggests the employment effect has been more powerful, as civilian employment has reversed an earlier downward slide,” Vitner wrote in the report.

Click here for a full report on the December unemployment report, courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Commerce.