BlueGreen Alliance | Congress: Don’t Turn Your Backs on Workers

Congress: Don’t Turn Your Backs on Workers

BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director David Foster statement on the nation's unemployment rate focusese on how Congress can create manufacturing jobs.

September 7, 2012

 30 Months of Private Sector Job Growth Good News, But Congressional Action on Key Policies and Investments Could Help Spur More Jobs

WASHINGTON, DC (September 7, 2012) Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August unemployment statistics, showing a gain of 96,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent. The following is a statement from BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director David Foster:

“Today’s jobs data shows America continues to recover, with 30 months of job growth, but the reality is the jobs picture could be even better if Congress had acted on job-creating policies over the last two years.

“The inaction in Congress has cost us already. The manufacturing sector, which lost 15,000 jobs this month, had been making a steady comeback driven by the auto industry, clean energy and other sectors. Since the beginning of the year through July, the U.S. added 166,000 manufacturing jobs, and since the low point of January 2010, more than 500,000 jobs have been added.

“One contributor to the decline is the hundreds of workers in the wind industry that have been laid off or furloughed because the House has refused to extend the Production Tax Credit—a 2.2-cent per kilowatt-hour tax incentive for wind power. Thousands more face the same fate unless House leaders start showing they care more about the jobs of American workers than they do their own jobs in Congress.

“Yesterday, the BlueGreen Alliance called on Congress to pass pivotal policies and investments that are part of our Jobs21! plan. This will immediately jumpstart job growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

“America continues to recover, but Congress should not turn its back on the U.S. manufacturing sector or the workers who go to their jobs every day to build America’s future.”