[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 19 (Monday, February 6, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             LABOR NUMBERS

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I think it is becoming increasingly 
clear to anybody that's paying attention that this President's policies 
have failed and are making the economy worse.
  More Americans are out of work than when he took office. At that 
point, unemployment was 7.8 percent. America has witnessed the longest 
period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression, more 
than 8 percent for every month that he has been in office.
  When the President talks about the latest unemployment statistics, I 
think it's important that we look at more pressing issues, which is 
labor force participation. For the past 31 months, discouraged workers 
have been dropping out of the labor force in unprecedented numbers.
  In June 2009, which they like to say was the end of the recession--it 
was 6 months into his term--the labor force participation rate was 65.7 
percent. Today, it is down to 63.7 percent. The difference between 
those two numbers represents 4.8 million people who have given up 
looking for work. If the labor force participation rate had remained 
where it was when he took office, at 65.7 percent, the unemployment 
rate for January 2012 would have been 11 percent, rather than 8.3.
  It is time for us to change policies. It is time for us to get 
America back to work. The American people continue to say, ``Where are 
the jobs?''

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