U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao issued the following statement on the December unemployment numbers released today:
“The economy created 157,000 jobs in December, many in higher paying fields including education and health services and professional and business services. This emphasizes the importance of the President’s economic programs and job training initiatives.”
The unemployment rate in December remained unchanged at 5.4% and more than 2.5 million jobs have been created in the last 16 months. The level of payroll employment is now 114,000 higher than in January 2001 and the annual average for 2004 shows that more Americans are working than ever before.”
President Bush called Friday’s report “a very positive set of numbers” that are proof the economy is growing. “That’s positive news,” he said at the end of a meeting with the leaders of a bipartisan panel he’s tasked with recommending reforms to the tax code.The report didn’t sour economists, but it didn’t wow them either.