U.S. Chamber Comments on January Jobs Report

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Dr. Martin Regalia issued the following statement on the January employment report:

“We're happy to see that the economy created 243,000 more jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate continued to edge down. However, when you get below the top-line numbers, the situation gets murky. More and more people are removing themselves from the workforce because they are discouraged over their inability to find work. At this stage of the business cycle—more than 2.5 years into a recovery—it’s not a good sign that people are leaving the workforce.

“In order to build on this improvement and get us to where we need to be, lawmakers in Washington need remove impediments to growth and job creation by investing in infrastructure to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges, increasing domestic energy, speeding up the permitting process so projects can get underway more quickly and remove other regulatory barriers that are weighing down the economy, and making American business more globally competitive by acting on comprehensive tax reform.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.