Contact: Mary Jane Collipriest and Emily Christensen, 202-224-5444, Washington DC 20510

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      May 05, 2006

BENNETT: Jobs Numbers Show a Vibrant and Strong Economy

“Today’s jobs numbers once again reflect that the economy is vibrant and it is growing,” said Bennett, vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. “More Americans are working and more jobs are available today than ever before in our history. This is a consequence of a robust economy.”

“When we passed the Jobs & Growth Act in 2003, we helped turn a very anemic economic recovery into a strong one, and we are seeing the results of our actions reflected in today’s job numbers,” added Bennett.

In addition to the 138,000 net jobs created last month, more economic highlights are below:

• The unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent, well below the recent peak of 6.3 percent in June 2003 and below the average of the last four decades.

• Nearly 5.3 million jobs have been created since the enactment of pro-growth policies in May of 2003. Over the year ending in April, close to 2.0 million net new payroll jobs have been created.

• America’s business owners and entrepreneurs continue to drive our economy, with business investment up for the past 10 consecutive quarters and averaging over 9 percent.

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for first quarter of this year was 4.8 percent, the highest growth since third quarter of 2003.

Earlier this week Bennett gave a speech on the Senate floor outlining the current economy environment. The speech and corresponding charts are available at www.bennett.senate.gov.

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