WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Charles Rangel released the following statement today after the Department of Labor announced that the economy added 103,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent.  With 137,000 jobs added by private businesses, this marks the 19th consecutive month of private sector job growth:

"Today's latest unemployment numbers show that too many Americans are still hurting. Republicans have been in power for 276 days and have not produced a single jobs bill. Instead of working with the Democrats to bolster our economy and get America back to work, they have remained fixated on defeating President Obama no matter what the cost is to American families.

It is time for Republicans to join Democrats in passing President Obama's American Jobs Act that could possibly add almost 2 million jobs and increase economic growth up to two percentage points.

As we have seen in the Occupy Wall Street protests, people are frustrated and have had enough of political games. People need jobs right now. I urge my Republican Colleagues to work with us to get America back to work.”