The U.S. Labor Department reported the January unemployment rate fell to 4.9% from the 5% in December and the economy created 151,000 jobs. It was the 71st straight month of positive job growth. The job numbers was some what lower than anticipated but keeps the economic expansion moving forward. The President should continue to take what ever measures are necessary so the country can be at full employment.
The unemployment rate when President Obama took office was 7.8% a decline of 2.9% in his seven years in office so far. It was 4.2% when President George W. Bush took office and 7.8% when he left office. An increase of 3.6% in the unemployment rate on his watch. The highest sustained unemployment rate in the last 55 years took place on President Reagan's watch when it stayed above 10% for 10 straight months from September 1982 to June 1983. The republican party and its Presidential candidates still can not bring themselves to say any thing positive about the President's administration. Jealousy has a corrosive effect on the republican party and they also have a complex about their own failure to walk the conservative talk.
Understanding the past is still the key to a better future and that is why the country and its people always do best on the democratic watch.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
Note: Information above on unemployment taken from U.S. Labor Departments Historic Monthly record on unemployment.
