SCHAKOWSKY REACTS TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT FIGURES JANUARYS JOB NUMBERS ARE PART OF A LONG STRING OF ECONOMIC FAILURES FOR PRESIDENT BUSH

February 6, 2004

SCHAKOWSKY REACTS TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

"JANUARY'S JOB NUMBERS ARE PART
OF A LONG STRING OF ECONOMIC
FAILURES FOR PRESIDENT BUSH"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today issued the following statement in reaction to employment figures released today by the Bush Administration showing that 112,000 jobs were created in January. At the same time, 432,000 discouraged Americans left the workforce or did not enter the job market at all.

"The Bush economy has failed to create a single new net private sector job in the past 34 months, and the 112,000 new jobs in January are even short of the 150,000 jobs needed a month just to keep up with population growth. Unless President Bush creates 2.4 million jobs in the next nine months, he will have the worst job creation record of any president since the Great Depression," Schakowsky said.

She added, "In January, three times as many people exhausted their unemployment benefits as the number of jobs created. And 11,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last month, with a total of 126,200 manufacturing jobs lost in Illinois since the President took office."

"January's job numbers are part of a long string of economic failures for President Bush. It's time for a new team to lead our nation in the race to recovery and job creation," Schakowsky concluded.