Carolyn Maloney: “This chart is a quick way to assess the direction things have been going in our efforts to recover from the Great…”

“This chart is a quick way to assess the direction things have been going in our efforts to recover from the Great Recession. While it is not success, it is definitely progress. It shows the monthly change in nonfarm payrolls over the past 2 years. Point A on this chart is when the Great Recession and the job losses began in December of 2007. Back then, we were assured the fundamentals of the economy were sound. For over a year, the economy went straight downhill and shed jobs at an increasing rate, with no change in direction. The last month that the former President was in office, President Bush, we lost over 700,000 jobs. Point C represents the jobs report from the last 2 months, clearly a dramatic improvement from 1 year ago--in fact, a 96 percent improvement, from over 750,000 jobs lost to 35,000 jobs; again, progress in the right direction. In addition to this general trend, I would like to point out that the temporary help sector continues to improve. More than 40,000 workers have been added to the temporary help sector, a clear indication of improvement in the job market. We still have a distance to go before we get every American back to work, but as this chart clearly shows, we are slowly and steadily moving in the right direction. Again, this is progress.”