LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July after three months of sluggish hiring. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3% from 8.2% in June.
July's hiring was the best since February. Still, the economy has added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year - enough to keep up with population growth but not enough to drive down the unemployment rate.
Read more about the jobs report, here.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, issued the following statement regarding the jobs report:
"In Nevada and across America there are still far too many Americans looking for work. But we have now seen 27 straight months of private sector job growth, along with encouraging progress in critical sectors such as manufacturing. Our economy is recovering, but recovering slowly.
The main obstacle standing in the way of a stronger economic recovery is the unprecedented, politically-motivated obstruction from Republicans in Congress. My counterpart, Senator McConnell, announced that his 'single most important' goal was defeating President Obama. Republicans have followed his lead, blocking bill after bill that would create jobs and help middle-class families, often without even bothering to pretend they disagree with the bipartisan, common-sense policies they are obstructing.
The best thing we can do to spur on our recovery is to protect middle-class families from the fiscal cliff. Last week, the Senate passed a bill that would prevent middle-class families' taxes from rising on January 1. Sadly, House Republicans are holding these middle-class tax cuts hostage, demanding additional tax cuts for the top two percent of taxpayers.
Instead of spending all of their energy trying to defeat President Obama, I hope my Republican colleagues will listen to their constituents, drop their obstruction, and start working with Democrats. Middle-class Americans expect us to put politics aside and do the right thing for our economy, and they deserve nothing less."
Sen. Dean Heller, R-NV, issued the following statement regarding the jobs report:
"This stagnant economy is further proof that the economic policies coming out of Washington are not working. No state has felt the brunt of this recession like the State of Nevada. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about what can be done to create jobs and get our economy moving. In order to help our job creators thrive again, we must tear down the barriers to growth and opportunity. Americans are fighting every day to achieve the American Dream, but what they get from Washington is more attacks on their livelihood in the form of new regulations, new mandates, and new taxes. Just last week the Senate majority pushed a tax increase that would kill 6,000 jobs in Nevada and more than 700,000 jobs nationwide. It's past time for Congress to change direction and pass pro-growth policies that will ignite our economy and get Americans back to work," said Senator Dean Heller.
U.S. Senate candidate Shelley Berkley, D-NV, issued the following statement regarding the jobs report:
"While it is encouraging that the economy added more jobs in July than any month since February, and that we've seen 27 straight months of private sector job growth, far too many in Nevada are still out of work. That's why our top priority each and every day must be to fight for good-paying middle-class jobs that can't be outsourced.
We can make Nevada the clean energy jobs capital of the country, give Nevada small businesses the tools to begin hiring again and crack down on China's unfair trade practices that cheat American workers out of thousands of jobs, but only if Washington Republicans like Senator Dean Heller stop standing up for the Wall Street special interests and begin looking out for middle-class families."
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