STATEMENT FROM COMMERCE SECRETARY DONALD L. EVANS ON TODAY’S JOBLESS CLAIMS REPORT
Initial jobless claims fall to three-year low

“Fewer and fewer Americans need unemployment assistance because President Bush’s tax relief is speeding up job creation. The alternative would be more Americans out of work because tax increases destroy jobs. We’re pleased that over half a million people found jobs this year, but President Bush won’t be satisfied until every American seeking work finds it. The unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, is well below its peak of 6.3 percent last June, and remains below the average of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.”