September 07, 2003

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Disappointed by Continued Job Loss Under Bush Administration

New Data Shows Loss of 93,000 More Jobs in August

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) today said that she was extremely disappointed by this morning’s national unemployment figures, which show that the economy lost 93,000 private-sector jobs in August. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, a staggering 3.2 million private sector jobs have been lost since President Bush took office in January, 2001. More than halfway through his term, Bush has lost more than 85,000 jobs per month, giving him the worst record of job creation of any President since Depression-era President Herbert Hoover.

Nationwide, the overall unemployment rate is currently 6.1%, with the unemployment rate for Hispanics at 7.8 % and for African Americans at 10.9 % in August. In California, 265,100 jobs have been lost since Bush took office. The most recent report from California shows that the overall state unemployment rate in California was 6.6% in July, up from 4.7% in January 2001.

"This unemployment data shows yet again that the Bush Administration economic policies have failed,” said Lee. “President Bush can only claim success in creating jobseekers, not jobs.”

The poor economy under the Bush Administration has had a particularly devastating impact on the nation’s manufacturing sector. In August, the economy lost an additional 44,000 manufacturing jobs. Overall, more than 2.5 million of the net loss of 3.2 million private-sector jobs since January 2001 has been in the manufacturing sector.

Lee has supported an economic growth package that would have created 1 million jobs this year by providing infrastructure development to create good-paying jobs and strong communities, as well as providing relief for states.

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