US 'Witnessing Steady, Consistent Growth,' Bush Says
(CNSNews.com) - Unemployment held steady at 5.6 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday, and perhaps most important to the Bush administration, the economy added 112,000 new jobs in the month of June.
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Although that number was half of what analysts expected, the administration put a positive spin on the number. At a White House press conference on Friday, President Bush called it "pretty remarkable to be able to stand up and say to you that our economy is strong and getting stronger, that we're witnessing steady, consistent growth."
Bush noted that the nation's economy is strengthening despite enduring a recession, a national emergency, war and corporate scandals. He emphasized "steady, consistent growth" not "boom-or-bust type growth" that should make small businesses more confident to expand and create jobs.
"Manufacturers are reporting increased activity more than any time in 20 years," the president said.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao released the figures on Friday. "These numbers show continued job growth in good paying fields. We added 112,000 jobs in June, making it the 10th straight month of job creation, with 1.5 million Americans finding new jobs since last August," she said.
"But there's no room for complacency. We need to act on the President's energy plan and stop lawsuit abuses to keep the economic recovery going strong," she added.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are entering the workforce at an average rate of 224,000 per month since March 2004, a good indication that the economy is continuing to rebound. The announcement of the 5.6 percent unemployment rate is also drastically lower than the 6.3 percent rate last year.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) hailed the promising new economic data and praised the economic policies promoted by the Bush administration and enacted by Republican leadership.
"Common sense policies passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Bush are putting more money into the pockets of consumers, growing the economy and creating jobs," he said.
Hastert also took a passing shot at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (D-Ma.), invoking the history of American forefathers dumping tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxes and fight for freedom.
"While today some sons of Boston may want to return to the days of higher taxes, I believe we should dump those plans in the harbor and not strangle our economy from creating 1.5 million jobs," said Hastert.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Budget Committee and a strong advocate for the economic policies advanced by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress, also celebrated the new figures while digging at Kerry and the Democrats.
"With ten straight months of positive jobs reports, it's growing increasingly difficult for some of my colleagues to claim the sky is falling. The American people know better, and they're going back to work," said Cornyn.
The latest job numbers didn't seem to impress Kerry, however. He said America can still do better.
"This Administration says this is the best economy of our lifetime. They say this is the best we can do. They've even called us pessimists. Well, I say, the most pessimistic thing you can say is that America can't do better," said Kerry speaking to supporters Friday in Cloquet, Minn.
"Don't tell us a million and a half lost jobs is the best we can do, when we can create millions of new jobs. We can do better and we will," he added.
Dr. Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors painted a mixed picture of the economic data. "The data were a bit disappointing. Clearly, we were expecting some better job growth."
The lower than anticipated numbers on job creation were not a cause for great concern though, Naroff said.
"...[V]ery frequently when job growth begins to pick up, we get a situation where there's a lot of volatility in the numbers...we saw that in 1993, we saw that in 1984 and eventually we moved into an extended period of job gains. While it's disappointing right now, it doesn't necessarily tell us it's something we have to worry about," he said.
Many Americans, Democrats, and economic analysts have dubbed the upward trend of employment and economic growth as a "jobless recovery."
Kerry has used the term "jobless recovery" repeatedly in speeches across the nation throughout his presidential campaign.
In an Aug. 28, 2003 address in New Hampshire he said, "George Bush is the job-loss President-and only he would give us a jobless recovery. For most people, a jobless recovery is just a fancy term for recession...If Americans aren't working, America's not working."
The reason Democratic pundits and detractors of the Bush administration's economic policies use the term "jobless recovery" is because the creation of jobs, historically a lagging indicator of economic growth, was outpaced in the recovery by other positive news, such as 20-year highs in Gross Domestic Product, production and record home ownership.
Critics also claim that there are less high-quality, high-wage jobs. Frequently cited has been the large volume of U.S. manufacturing sector job loss.
The 5.6 percent unemployment rate is virtually identical to the rate in October 1996 of 5.2 percent, when former President Bill Clinton defeated Republican nominee Robert Dole in the presidential election.
However, the rate had declined from 7.3 percent to 5.2 percent over four years. Most political experts credit the expanding American economy as the primary reason for former President Clinton's re-election.
Under President Bush, the unemployment rate started at 4.2 percent in January 2001. After inheriting an economic recession, enduring the dot-com bust, accounting scandals, the Sept. 11 attacks, and the uncertainty of two wars, the rate spiked back to 6.3 percent in 2003 and has since declined to its current rate of 5.6 percent.
In addition, economic data has improved for 10 consecutive months at a rate unmatched in 20 years. |
