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Economy and Jobs
![Dollar bills in front of the US flag Dollar bills in front of the US flag](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120928063927im_/http://cleaver.house.gov/sites/cleaver.house.gov/files/styles/section_front_boilerplate/public/economy.jpg)
The issues of Economy and Jobs are important to our district and to my work in Congress.
As you know better than anyone, the economy is growing but it is simply not growing fast enough. Businesses are creating jobs, but as we learned in the most recent jobs report, they're not creating enough. We lost more than 8 million jobs as a result of the Great Recession. Since the President has taken office the economy has added private sector jobs for 29 straight months, for a total of 4.5 million jobs during that period. As of July 2012, the unemployment rate stood at 8.3 percent. This recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but much more remains to be done to repair the damage caused by the financial crisis and the deep recession.
Long-term unemployment is also still a problem, with 40.7 percent of the unemployed still looking for a job for more than six months. In the past, I have worked together with my colleagues across the aisle to extend unemployment insurance benefits, payroll tax cuts, and infrastructure investments to help the middle class in the Fifth District and across the country. Most recently, we passed part of the President's American Jobs Act, to help businesses hire qualified, returning veterans. It is critical that we continue the economic policies that can help us dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began at the end of 2007. But we must work together again, and soon, to address high poverty rates, a depressed housing market, and large household debt burdens experienced by all too many. Most of all, we must create jobs, restore confidence in our economy, and rebuild the middle-class.
For more information concerning my work and views on the issues of Economy and Jobs, please contact my Washington, DC office.
I look forward to your feedback.
Thank you.
See also information on resources for businesses.