President Obama, in his weekly radio address Saturday, prodded the incoming Republican Congress with the news that the U.S. has added more jobs in 2014 than in any year since 1999, saying it's an argument for lawmakers to enact his administration's economic priorities.
"Building new roads and bridges creates jobs. Growing our exports creates jobs. Reforming our outdated tax system and our broken immigration system creates jobs," Obama said. "Raising the minimum wage would benefit nearly 28 million American workers, giving them more money to spend at local businesses — and that helps those businesses create jobs."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that payroll employment, adjusted for seasonal variation, grew by 321,000 in November, above economists' expectations. Including strong revisions to recent months, the economy has added 2.65 million jobs on the year with a month left to go, eclipsing the growth of 2005 and setting the highest mark since the dotcom bubble year of 1999.
Average hourly earnings were up 0.4 percent in November, and 2.1 percent in the past year, right in line with the trend and slightly higher than the rate at which consumer prices have risen.
In a statement, House Speaker John Boehner said "while it's welcome news that more people found work last month, millions still remain out of work, and middle-class families across the country, including my home state of Ohio, are struggling to get by on wages that haven’t kept pace with rising costs.
"The president’s response has been more of the same: the same massive regulations, the same rising premiums, and the same uncertainty for manufacturers and small businesses," he said.
House Republican leaders, who have watched with frustration over the past two years as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has bottled up their legislative agenda, are already planning ways to enact their own measures with the help of the Senate's new Republican majority.
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