10.22.13

Sessions Comments On September Jobs Report

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the economy added just 148,000 jobs during the month of September:

"Today’s jobs report underscores the real problem in today’s labor market: growing joblessness among working-age adults despite modest monthly gains in total employment.

Nearly 2 million fewer Americans are working today than in 2007. But this does not tell the full story: millions more have left the workforce altogether—retiring early, moving in with family, going from a two-income to a one-income household, going on disability or welfare, or giving up looking for work. Of particular concern is that 1 in 6 American youth are neither working or in school.

Taking into account all of this, less than 60 percent of U.S. adults are participating in the workforce. Worse still, the broad measure of unemployment that includes discouraged and marginal workers actually increased to 13.6 percent last month. This joblessness translates into 3.7 billion fewer hours being worked this year than in 2007, which directly affects the savings and living standards of millions of Americans. Those who are working are experiencing a decline in wages and incomes stretching back to the late 1990s. Getting these Americans back into the workforce, and getting cash wages to rise and replace government benefits, has to be at the center of all economic discussions."