Maloney statement on July jobs report

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), former chair of the Joint Economic Committee, today issued the following statement after the Department of Labor announced that the economy added 162,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in July:

“Today’s report shows that job growth continued consistent with recent rates, and the unemployment rate fell. A solid, consistent job-market recovery is clearly continuing. Nothing is more important to our society than getting both jobs and wages growing faster.

“In speaking with former Council of Economic Advisers Chair Alan Blinder this morning, he told me, ‘the pace of job growth is too slow and wages remain stagnant. Congress and the Fed must keep working on job creation.’

“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that if Congress simply restored the sequester budget cuts, the economy would add nearly a million additional jobs next year alone. Yet, as Fed Chair Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee two weeks ago, Congress itself has been the ‘greatest risk to growth.’ That has got to stop. ”