212,000 new private sector jobs added in December - 1.9 million new private sector jobs in 2011 since payroll tax cut passed

Washington, D.C. - Today's news that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5% with the creation of 212,000 new private sector jobs, Rep. Gary Peters highlighted the impact of the middle class payroll tax cut and called on House Republicans to immediately pass a clean extension through the rest of 2012. When the payroll tax cut was first passed in December 2010, the unemployment rate was at 9.4% - since that time, 1.9 million new jobs have been created.

“I stood with President Obama to pass the payroll tax cut in December 2010, and since that time the unemployment rate has dropped significantly with almost 2 million new private sector jobs being created - we need a clean extension of this job creating middle class tax cut through the rest of 2012,” said Rep. Gary Peters. “By continuing to return an average tax cut of about $1,000 to middle class Americans, we're putting more money back into the economy, increasing consumer spending and creating new jobs. There's still a lot of work left to do to improve our economy, but the facts are on our side and I hope my Republican colleagues will agree to stop playing games with middle class tax cuts in the new year.”

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